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An aerospace company has unveiled a new hypersonic engine which it says makes a “major breakthrough” in high-speed flight.
Venus Aerospace, a Texas-based company focused on making hypersonic travel a reality, has announced they are producing an advanced propulsion engine that could power high-speed vehicles, including drones and aircraft.
Hypersonic technology is not a new phenomenon – it has been used in ballistic missiles, space expeditions, as well as Nasa’s experimental X-planes.
However, the introduction of hypersonic travel into commercial flights has yet to be propelled into reality, whereas supersonic ventures such as the British-French Concorde have made it into the air but not flown since 2003.
The company hopes that the Venus Detonation Ramjet 2,000lb Thrust Engine, also known as VDR2, will enable vehicles to travel long distances at high altitudes, all while achieving Mach speeds – a rate that is faster than the speed of sound.
Venus Aerospace said that the VDR2 would offer a single engine that can go as fast as Mach 6, which is 3,600mph.
The company says that the engine should be able to sustain efficient cruising at Mach 4 on journeys of up to 5,000 miles, and will be designed for take-off and landing at various airports with a 30-minute turnaround time.
The ”groundbreaking” product was unveiled at Up.Summit, a gathering in the US state of Arkansas for investors and industry leaders in the transport sector.
Andrew Duggleby, the co-founder of Venus Aerospace, spoke at the summit, saying that the engine “makes the hypersonic economy a reality.”
“We are excited to partner with Velontra to achieve this revolution in high-speed flight, given their expertise in high-speed air combustion."
Eric Briggs, Velontra’s chief operating officer, said: "We can’t wait to dig in, make the first one fly, and ultimately perfect an engine concept that has lived mostly in textbooks but never as a production unit in the air,"
"We couldn’t think of a better partner than Venus. Rocketry pioneers in their own right and ready to tackle the hard problems, we are eager to fly the same path with them."
Both Venus Aerospace and Velontra said that by combining their technologies, they hope to take steps towards high-speed flight in both the commercial and defence sectors.
Venus Aerospace hope to test its engine, using a drone, by 2025. But production of its first hypersonic commercial plane, the Venus Stargazer M400, may not begin until the 2030s.
The 3,461-mile flight between London and New York that takes, on average, eight hours could be achieved in under an hour at Mach 6 speeds.
Yet it is unclear when a fully realised hypersonic commercial plane will become a reality.
Simon Calder, travel correspondent at The Independent – and one of a dwindling number of people who flew on Concorde – said: “I look forward to travelling to the hyperport using my personal jetpack. But perhaps not for a few more decades.
“The absurd costs – environmental as well as financial – involved in flying faster than the speed of sound make it extremely unlikely that London-New York in an hour will be a reality any time in this half-century.”
For more travel news and advice, listen to Simon Calder’s podcast
