An experimental hypersonic jet engine has been successfully tested in flight for the first time, Australian scientists have announced.
The HyShot supersonic ramjet combustion or 鈥渟cramjet鈥� engine ignited briefly during a 10-minute flight above the Australian outback on 29 July, flight data shows.
鈥淭o the best of our knowledge, we鈥檝e achieved supersonic combustion in flight for the very first time, and we have measured it,鈥� HyShot programme leader Allan Paull at the University of Queensland told AAP.
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Scramjet engines use oxygen from the atmosphere for combustion. This makes them far lighter than conventional rocket engines, which need to carry oxygen supplies.
Scientists hope this very light design could revolutionise spacecraft launch vehicles, and potentially jet aircraft design.
HyShot is designed to fly at more than seven times the speed of sound. But in order for a scramjet engine to ignite it must first be propelled to at least Mach 5 using normal rocket power.
Smashing speeds
HyShot was fitted inside the nose cone of a two-stage rocket, which boosted it to an altitude of 300 kilometres. The rocket then plummeted back to Earth, reaching a speed of Mach 7.6.
Data data from the flight, which has now been fully analysed, shows the engine fired successfully before it and the rocket smashed into the ground, about 400 kilometres west of Woomera in South Australia.
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency performed the first successful ignition of a scramjet engine during a ground-based test in September 2001. This involved using a gun to fire the engine to a speed above Mach 5.
Forced destruction
The Australian team first attempted a test flight at altitude in October 2001. But the rocket carrying the scramjet on this flight malfunctioned and the test failed.
In June 2001, NASA was forced to destroy the X-43, a remote-controlled aircraft carrying a scramjet, as it veered off course before the engine could ignite.
Paull and colleagues plan to conduct 10 further tests over the next five years, but say they need AUS$25 million funding to do this.