Researchers have tested a supersonic jet with the ambition of flying at speeds up to 8,000 km/h in Australia on March 25.
This $1.42 million project was initiated by researchers at the University of Queensland in a remote area of Woomera, located 500 km north of Adelaide. The Supersonic Combustion Ramjet, or scramjet, was developed by the British company QinetiQ.
The scramjet was attached to a rocket and launched to an altitude of 314 km during a 10-minute flight. Allan Paul, the project leader, stated that it is still too early to determine whether the rocket achieved the anticipated speed of 8,000 km/h, but he remains optimistic about the test launch. Some observers believe that the scramjet technology could revolutionize space travel.
The United States has conducted tests with scramjet technology, while the European Union, Japan, China, Russia, and India are at various stages of testing their own technologies. Allan Paul mentioned that passenger aircraft utilizing scramjet engines still have a long way to go, but it may be possible to use such aircraft within the next 10 years for limited purposes, such as delivering vital organs for emergency transplant surgeries.
Currently, the fastest conventional aircraft can reach speeds of Mach 3.2, which is 3.2 times the speed of sound, a record held by the U.S. Air Force’s SR-71 Blackbird.
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