Tech

New rocket plane set to fly at supersonic speeds incredibly close to space

  • This New Zealand company has developed a rocket plane
  • They hope that it will fly to reach the edge of space and beat the previous record
  • The record was previously held by a US spy plane

Published on Jul 12, 2024 at 7:06 PM (UTC+4)
by Ben Thompson

Last updated on Jul 15, 2024 at 1:17 AM (UTC+4)
Edited by Tom Wood

This rocket plane is set to reach new heights and new speeds never seen before.

Dawn Aerospace, a New Zealand-based company, has been certified to fly their rocket plane at supersonic speeds.

The Mk-II Aurora craft would be the ‘first privately funded aircraft of its kind to break the sound barrier’.

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The new rocket plane set to break records

Test flights are scheduled to run between July and September, which would see the MK-II hit speeds of Mach 1.1.

For reference, the speed of sound is Mach 1 – anything faster than that is supersonic.

It is hoped that the MK-II will be capable of flying at speeds faster than Mach 3, although that’s still some time away yet.

Thanks to the certification provided by New Zealand’s Civil Aviation Authority, the MK-II is permitted to fly as high as 24.4km (80,000 feet).

Rocket
Dawn Aerospace

If Dawn Aerospace is hoping to hit space, they’ve still got a way to go.

Space is generally considered to start at around 100km (328,000 feet).

A stated goal of the MK-II is to for it to be ‘the first vehicle ever to fly to 100km altitude, the edge of space, twice in a single day’.

CEO Stefan Powell said: “At full performance, the Mk-II will fly faster and 2.5 times higher than any prior aircraft that takes off from a runway, including the current record holder, the SR-71 Blackbird.

“That is the power of bringing rocket performance to an aircraft platform.”

The current record holder, the SR-71, was an American spy plane that flew spy missions over Vietnam during the war in the 1960s.

Rocket
Dawn Aerospace

It would later be retired in the 1980s and 1990s.

Speaking of the benefits of the MK-II, Powell said: “It is rapidly reusable and low cost, making it well suited for applications such as microgravity, high speed flight research, earth observation, and other defense and civil uses.

“Receiving this certification is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our team, and their ability to operate such a high-performance vehicle to the standards the CAA expects of any aircraft operator.”

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Ben got his start in journalism at Kennedy News and Media, writing stories for national newspapers, websites and magazines. Now working as a freelancer, he divides his time between teaching at News Associates and writing for news sites on all subjects.