A New Hypersonic Plane

Venus Aerospace is building a hypersonic aircraft that can carry about a dozen passengers, traveling at Mach 9, nine times the speed of sound. The Stargazer, which measures 150 feet long by 100 feet wide, will travel between two cities in the world, says the Houston-based company, by flying 6,905 mph at an altitude of 170,000 feet.

Hypersonic is defined as five times the speed of sound. By comparison, the last commercial supersonic jet, the Concorde, traveled at Mach 2, or about, 1,535 mph. The fastest aircraft ever built, Lockheed’s SR-71 “Blackbird,” traveled at Mach 3.2 (2,455 mph).

Venus co-founder and CTO Andrew Duggleby plans to move Stargazer from science fiction to reality with a rotating-detonation engine that spins at 20,000 rotations per second. “Rotating detonation means the supersonic combustion happens continuously inside the engine and our video shows the detonation wave moving around the engine at supersonic speeds,” noted the company after its recent successful test of a prototype at its Spaceport Houston headquarters.

The Stargazer is one of several hypersonic aircraft trying to get off the ground.

Courtesy Venus Aerospace

The rotating-detonation concept, which burns 20 percent less fuel than a conventional engine, is being promoted by the US Navy. This technology has been successfully tested before. But the Venus test was the first time using a room-temperature storable propellant, which will make the engine more viable for aircraft. “We now have both the technical knowledge and engineering to fully advance into next steps of development and flight testing,” said Duggleby.

The 150,000-lb. Stargazer will take off with conventional jet engines, but then transition to rockets once it reaches altitude. The route it will fly is not technically on the edge of space, or the Karman line, which is 100 kilometers above the Earth’s surface. But it will be high enough to see the planet’s curve and the blackness of space.

“This represents a key advancement towards real flying systems, both for defense applications and ultimately commercial high-speed travel,” said Jim Bridenstine, former NASA administrator and US Congressman, following the test.  READ MORE...

Magnetic Fluid Engines

China is reportedly developing and testing its hypersonic technology at an unprecedented pace. It claims to have added another engine to its arsenal that can propel it to the forefront of the hypersonic race.

China’s hypersonic weapons program hopes to springboard itself into the future with an “air-breathing” magnetic fluid engine that might make it commercially possible to go anywhere on Earth in under an hour.

By 2035, China intends to construct a hypersonic passenger fleet that will use near-Earth orbit to go to any destination in the world in under an hour. Even though this program has been ridiculed by Western observers, China remains committed to developing an aircraft of this caliber and expanding the fleet in over a decade after a successful operation.

The program’s lead scientist claimed that the super-quiet engine with no moving parts will also aid in the construction of the next-generation launch vehicle, which is expected to enhance China’s space capability tremendously.

The ‘Next Generation Launch Vehicle’ is likely to launch a crewed mission to space and could potentially make its first flight in 2026. An advanced engine powering it could turn out to be a technological space milestone for the communist nation.     READ MORE...

Space Plane with 3D Printed Engine

A hypersonic 'spaceplane' dubbed Delta Velos (pictured) has been developed in inner Sydney by a team of dedicated engineers

A hypersonic 'spaceplane' is being developed in inner Sydney, but the passengers will be gadgets not people. Named Delta Velos, the sleek vehicle will be powered by four green-hydrogen fuelled scramjet engines to send small satellites into orbit.

Engineer Simon Ringer and his team at the University of Sydney are working with Australian aerospace engineering startup Hypersonix Launch Systems on the zero-emissions spaceplane.

'There will be this Australian-made vehicle which is just a complete leap in technology, travelling at hypersonic speeds,' Professor Ringer told AAP on Thursday.

With the development of sophisticated 3D printers, the so-called additive manufacturing tools, objects have jumped from fun and wacky to industrial and useful.

Additive manufacturing will be used to make flight-critical parts of the spaceplane, which will be powered by the world's first 3D printed scramjet engine.  READ MORE...