Free Republic

A conceptual hypersonic aircraft. (NASA/Daniel Rosato/UCF) A never-ending detonation could be the key to hypersonic flight and space planes that can seamlessly fly from Earth into orbit. And now, researchers have recreated the explosive phenomenon in the lab that could make it possible. Detonations are a particularly powerful kind of explosion that move outward faster than the speed of sound. The massive explosion that rocked the port of Beirut in Lebanon last August was a detonation, and the widespread destruction it caused demonstrates the huge amounts of energy they can produce. Scientists have long dreamed of building aircraft engines that...

The breakthrough was built on decades of research into a theoretical propulsion system called an oblique detonation wave engine (ODWE). The concept works by funneling a mixture of air and fuel at hypersonic speeds (more than five times the speed of sound) toward a ramp, which creates a shock wave. This shock wave rapidly heats up the fuel-air mixture and causes it to detonate, blasting exhaust gasses out from the back of the engine at high speed. In theory, this detonation should be able to propel an aircraft at up to 17 times the speed of sound, say the researchers,...