The idea of installing a physical spike on the nose of the body and its effect on aerodynamic heat transfer and aerodynamic drag has been investigated over the years. There can be zones of reduced heat transfer rates, but in the vicinity of locations where the shock from the spike interacts with the forebody surface, the heat transfer rates can be very high. The driver section is pressurized using helium gas from a high-pressure cylinder, which ruptures the diaphragm and generates a shock wave traveling into the driven section that contains the test gas, carbon dioxide. The diaphragm rupture generates a strong incident shock wave with a typical shock Mach number of 8.6, which travels into the 5-m-long shock tube of 50 mm diameter containing carbon dioxide at subatmospheric pressures. The test gas behind the reflected shock wave expands through the convergent divergent nozzle to hypersonic Mach numbers in the test section. The test model is mounted on the floor of the dump tank along with a pitot tube.