A HYPERSONIC aircraft that could fly from London to Sydney in two hours has reached a key milestone ahead of its first launch next year.
Australia-based Hypersonix Launch Systems, the firm behind the DART spaceplane, has inked a deal with Southern Launch, which operates two spaceport sites.
The deal will see the spacecraft, which can fly five times the speed of sound, blast off from either the Eyre Peninsula, the southernmost tip of Australia, or the Koonibba Test Range, in the first quarter of 2025.
A rocket will take the vehicle up into the sky, before the spaceplane separates and ignites its own scramjet engines to zoom away.
Hypersonix is set to attach devices to the spaceplane to see how they fare when moving at Mach 5 to Mach 7 speeds through the air.
In a statement, Hypersonix CEO Matt Hill said: “The intensity of hypersonic testing is set to rise rapidly and there are a huge number of both emerging technology companies and large aerospace companies that need hypersonic flight heritage for their products.
“Our hypersonic test bed will make this affordable for these companies to flight qualify their technology.”
Despite a relatively small aerospace industry, aviation experts largely consider Australia to be a pioneer in hypersonic technology.
The US Department of Defence has already cut a supply deal with the Brisbane HQ'd firm for its DART spaceplanes, which Hypersonix executives believe can one day fly at seven times the speed of sound.
While the company is also set to help the UK's Ministry of Defence develop hypersonic missiles, as part of a £1billion contract signed in July.
But the brand doesn't just want to carve out a military niche.
Michael Smart, founder of Hypersonix, previously told local outlet Australian Aviation that his long-term goal is to fly customers to space “like you fly with Qantas”.
Qantas is the largest commercial airline in Australia.
“Hypersonix’s long-term ambition is to bring affordable aircraft-like operations to access to space, flying to the edge of space for spacecraft deployment and returning to land like a plane,” Southern Launch said.
“Hypersonic engines will also power a future generation of passenger aircraft with the potential of reducing the flight time from Adelaide to London to just two hours.”
By Millie Turner, Senior Technology & Science Reporter
It's technology like this that truly will make the world smaller and bring families closer together.
Loved ones living on opposite ends of the Earth could see each other in at least two hours, as opposed to a sluggish, red-eyed, 24.
The fare will be lofty in the beginning.
And probably out of the price range of most people.
But if bosses are successful in making Hypersonix the next Qantas, British Airways or American Airlines, that price tag should come down over time.
