Company closer to hypersonic passenger aircraft that would fly around the world at Mach 9
- Venus Aerospace is working on a jet engine-rocket engine hybrid system
- The system would be capable of reaching Mach 9
- The company has just completed its first test flight
Published on Aug 21, 2024 at 6:30 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on Aug 22, 2024 at 7:04 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Tom Wood
Aerospace company Venus is one step closer to hypersonic flight.
The company has successfully completed its first test flight, which is theoretically the first on its way to Mach 9.
For reference, Concorde could ‘only’ fly at Mach 2.
Sure, we’re a long way from Mach 9 still, but this is a positive step.
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The test flight was part of the program that Venus is currently working, with the ultimate goal being an aircraft that’s capable of flying Mach 9.
They call it the ‘Starglazer‘, and while the plane is still in its prototype phase, the technology behind it is being tested in the real world.
From supersonic to hypersonic
Venus Aerospace’s test drone successfully completed its inaugural flight this year.
That’s the good news, but the bad news is this drone is only capable of supersonic speeds.
According to Venus, this is the best way to scale up and build an RDRE (rotating detonation rocket engine) capable of flying hypersonic’ cheaply and quickly’.
The test was conducted with a 300lb drone flying at 12,000 feet at Mach 0.9, or 1,111 km/h.
How does Venus Aerospace’s Starglazer actually work?
Stargazer is designed to use two types of engines, namely a combination of conventional jet engines and rocket engines.
The aircraft would use conventional jet engines for take-off and rocket engines would only deploy once the plane reaches 170,000 feet.
We should point out that Venus isn’t the only company that’s working on hypersonic aircraft.
Hypersonix, an Australian startup, is working on a plane known as Dart AE, which would be capable of flying at Mach 7.
Mind you, there’s a key difference between Starglazer and Dart AE.
While the former is ideally designed as a testbed for hypersonic commercial flights, the latter is a military project, which is currently being developed in partnership with the US DoD, the Department of Defense.
