Posted on 11/20/2024 9:25:00 PM PST by RomanSoldier19
Credit: Dawn Aerospace/Cover Images A rocket-powered aircraft has broken the sound barrier for the first time since Concorde, following a successful test flight in New Zealand. Dawn Aerospace’s MK-11 Aurora jet reached supersonic speeds, marking a milestone in the company’s mission to revolutionise daily space access and satellite launches. "This achievement signifies a major step toward operational hypersonic travel and daily space access, establishing rocket-powered aircraft as a new class of ultra-high-performance vehicles," the company said in a statement. The test flight on November 12 saw the uncrewed aircraft reach a speed of Mach 1.1 (844 mph) and climb to an altitude of 82,500 feet (15.6 miles) in 118.6 seconds.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Uh, rocket powered?
No thanks, doubt my life insurance covers that sort of stuff, fun though it might be.
Kind of a silly and absurd claim, as we have military aircraft that can break the sound barrier routinely. But the article is so poorly written technically, I cant really figure out what their claim is. A rocket is not a jet. So what is it?
A better video than what PMSNBC is providing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjIlE-RZUmw
https://www.dawnaerospace.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_Aerospace
It’s Down Under - New Zealanders want to show the world what they can do!
“marking a milestone in the company’s mission to revolutionise daily space access”
i heard that the tickets will be somewhat affordable, but the junk fees are killer ...
Yeah, what a crap article. So many obviously incorrect statements in there that it’s a frustrating read if you’re trying to tease out what might be interesting news buried somewhere in there.
Jets breathe air to burn fuel. They can’t get enough air to do so over about 60,000 ft. The air they do have to push through creates drag, reducing efficency.
Rockets don’t need air. They can go above 60,000 ft. and reduce drag. A craft using rocket engines can run more efficiently.
Commercial jets fly in air that’s about 20% as thick as at sea level. That’s enough air for their turbine engines to burn the jet fuel. Up at 60,000 ft. it’d down to 7% of sea level, getting too thin.
In 2 minutes, this plane flew at 80,000 ft altitude where the air is about 3% of sea level; air resistance isn’t much. I suppose if it they’d taken it another minute and reached 120,000 ft., the air resistance would be practically zero.
They claim they beat the F-15 Streak Eagle time to climb record.
Of course, theirs is an unmanned little rocket plane maybe 10-12 feet long with an 18” diameter fuselage. So I wouldn’t count that.
The Concorde was rocket powered? I learn something new every day. /s
What??? You don’t believe the Concorde was rocket powered?
What idiot writes this crap? The Concorde wasn't "rocket-powered," military jets break the sound barrier every day of the week, and there were rocket-powered planes in the Ansari X-Prize competition in 2004. The Concorde was grounded in 2003.
So there's no semblance of fact in this, just a bunch of inflated words the "writer" (and I use the term advisedly) uses to try to sound important.
Try telling that to the crews of the SR-71, which most certainly was jet-powered, and which flew as high as 85,000 feet (that we know of).
Airplanes? Nah.
https://www.openstar.tech/
,,, and this one started in New Zealand -
https://www.rocketlabusa.com/
We’re back on track where we should be. We’ve been in the Stone Age since they banned SSTs in USA during Nixon years.
Environmentalists do nothing good for humans.
Trump will get us back on track.
It’s a hype piece meant to suck in clueless investors. Company seems to have enough business with smaller thruster engines for satellites.
Feted feat would be impressive if done by a private amateur rocket hobbyist though. As far as a “milestone’s....I guess, but they need to accomplish another 500 or so...
Should have done a Haka pre-flight, like what was done in New Zealand House of lawmakers few days ago. That would have been cool.
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