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Ben Preiss
Experimental Scramjet Reaches Mach 10 (GALLERY)
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Imagine traveling halfway around the world in under two hours. That is the promise of scramjet technology that is being tested in Australia. The scramjet is simple in principle with few or no moving parts. Scientists, jointly testing the scramjet, from Australia’s defense Science and Technology Organization and the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced a successful test of a scramjet engine on June 15, 2007 that reached Mach 10.
Scientists from Australia's defense Science and Technology Organization teamed up with the wacky guys at DARPA to make a successful flight with their new Scramjet rocket, which hit Mach 10, or 10 times the speed of sound (761mph).
Scramjets are very simple engines, with almost no moving parts. Air is funneled in and compressed by the high speed of the rocket (or plane) and mixed with fuel. In a scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet), the air inside hits supersonic speeds, and can power the vehicle to a hypothetical maximum of Mach 24.
The caveat is that you need a rocket to get you up to around Mach 5 before the scramjet starts to work, although Steven Walker of DARPA thins that "that a hypersonic airplane could be a reality in the not too distant future".
(blog.wired)
Read More: en.wikipedia.org Via: blog.wired
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