Outback supersonic test flight a world first
In South Australia's outback, history has been made with a team from the University of Queensland successfully launching their supersonic air-breathing scramjet engine atop a rocket.
Until this morning no organisation, including NASA in the United States, has been able to successfully launch a scramjet - an air-breathing supersonic engine.
At 11:37am ACST the engine was propelled 300 kilometres into the air, reaching nearly eight times the speed of sound.
In the last remaining seconds during its descent, data was received from the scramjet and a world first was achieved.
Program leader Dr Alan Paull says it is hoped the engines will make it cheaper to send small items such as communication satellites into space.
Dr Paull says while it is still too early to say the experiment has definitely been a success, it looks to be a major achievement in Australian aviation history.
"Being a scientist I don't want to overplay it or anything like that, but this is of major significance to Australia, in a sense that we've demonstrated that we can actually fly at these sorts of speeds and produce payloads that work at these sorts of speeds," he said.
"And of course that mightn't mean much to the average person in the street, but we've demonstrated that we're one of the major players in this game, we're one of the most advanced."
8 times the speed of sound!!
WOOSHGGAAHHHH
As a person who travels a lot, this is great news.
In South Australia's outback, history has been made with a team from the University of Queensland successfully launching their supersonic air-breathing scramjet engine atop a rocket.
Until this morning no organisation, including NASA in the United States, has been able to successfully launch a scramjet - an air-breathing supersonic engine.
At 11:37am ACST the engine was propelled 300 kilometres into the air, reaching nearly eight times the speed of sound.
In the last remaining seconds during its descent, data was received from the scramjet and a world first was achieved.
Program leader Dr Alan Paull says it is hoped the engines will make it cheaper to send small items such as communication satellites into space.
Dr Paull says while it is still too early to say the experiment has definitely been a success, it looks to be a major achievement in Australian aviation history.
"Being a scientist I don't want to overplay it or anything like that, but this is of major significance to Australia, in a sense that we've demonstrated that we can actually fly at these sorts of speeds and produce payloads that work at these sorts of speeds," he said.
"And of course that mightn't mean much to the average person in the street, but we've demonstrated that we're one of the major players in this game, we're one of the most advanced."
8 times the speed of sound!!
WOOSHGGAAHHHH
As a person who travels a lot, this is great news.
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