After successfully testing a rocket-powered drone, Venus Aerospace hopes to apply the same technology to power a future aircraft that would fly at nine times the speed of sound
Source: Venus Aerospace
Venus Aerospace, of Houston, Texas, has successfully completed a test flight of its unmanned aerial vehicles with a “rotating detonation rocket motor”.
The superfast drone flew at almost supersonic speeds, thanks to an innovative engine that could significantly change passenger planes as we know them today.
The American company hopes to be able to use this type of engine for propulsion of the plane of the future that would transport passengers at nine times the speed of sound. And that is a speed of Mach 9 (Mach 9), i.e. only slightly higher than the incredible 11,100 km/h.
An airplane that would fly at that speed could cover the distance from London to San Francisco or from Tokyo to New York in just one hour!
Venus Aerospace – the first flight of a supersonic drone Source: YouTube / Venus Aerospace
16 kilometers at a speed of 1,094 per hour
“The drone successfully completed its first flight. The test successfully demonstrated flight controls, stability, operation of the advanced propulsion system with a rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE), telemetry, ground operations and air launch,” the company announced. last month, after the previous testing was done on February 24.
A video of the drone’s first flight was also published, in which it can be seen being launched from an airplane in flight. The aircraft, 2.44 meters long, weighing 136 kilograms, dropped at a height of 3,650 meters, accelerated to a maximum speed of Mach 0.9, i.e. 1,111 km/h and flew 16 kilometers.
It was powered by an engine powered by hydrogen peroxide, with 80 percent of maximum thrust, so that the drone would not exceed the speed of one mach. The tested rocket engine technology showed a 15 percent higher operating efficiency than standard rocket engines.
The speed of sound is about 1,234 km/h, while the drone performed its 16-kilometer (10-mile) flight at an average speed of about 1,094 km/h.
At a speed of 11,100 km/h in one hour across half the world: The engine test succeeded, is it the turn of the rocket plane?
Venus Aerospace Stargazer – rocket-powered supersonic plane
Venus Aerospace Stargazer – rocket-powered supersonic plane
Venus Aerospace Stargazer – rocket-powered supersonic plane
Venus Aerospace Stargazer – rocket-powered supersonic plane
Source: Venus AerospaceNo. image: 4 1 / 4 Source: Venus AerospaceNo. image: 4 2 / 4 Source: Venus AerospaceNo. image: 4 3 / 4 AD Source: Venus AerospaceNo. picture: 4 4 / 4
Stargazer – successor to Concorde?
Although there are already planes, mostly military, that can fly at speeds even higher than the speed of sound, commercial passenger aircraft are much slower than that. The only civil supersonic aircraft successfully used so far – the famous Concorde, flew at an average speed of two Machs.
A passenger jet aircraft, equivalent to Venus Aerospace’s drone, which could fly at nine times the speed of sound, would be a real revolution both in modern air traffic and in the eternal human effort to overcome distances.
By the way, about development hypersonic aircraft ideas from Venus Aerospaceunder the working name “Stargazer” (gallery above) the media already wrote about last year. It is about the idea of a civil aircraft powered by rocket engines, which would be designed to fly at average speeds of about 8,000 km/h and capable of climbing to a height of 52,000 meters.
Spouses Douglas, owners of Venus Aerospace and chief engineers behind the project, said at the time that they aimed to make tickets for flights on such an aircraft cost no more than the current prices of flying first class.