Abstract: In this paper,a method, which is based on the axisymmetric analog and needs to be used in conjunction with inviscid codes, is adopted for predicting the convective heating rates of hypersonic vehicles. The threedimensional inviscid flowfield solution is obtained firstly by solving the 3D Euler equation on structured grids. And then, the surface streamlines and metric coefficients are calculated by means of the inviscid velocity components in the Cartesian coordinates. Finally, some chosen approximate convective heating equations are used to evaluate heating rates. This method is applied to a cone at angles of attack of 0°, 8° and 16° to check the availability of being a better way for the heating rate predictions. By comparison of the present results with the experimental data and the results from the classic engineering methods, it is shown that good agreement exists between the calculated values and the experimental data, besides, a higher degree of precision of the heating rates can be obtained than the values from the classic engineering methods.