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Scramjet Success in Australia

Posted by chrisd on from the faster-than-a-speeding-uh-sr71 dept.

glengyron writes "Australia's ABC reports today that a University of Queensland team have successfully tested a supersonic scramjet (air-breathing supersonic combustion ramjet engine). Read more here or here. Great to see after previous problems. Does the future of air travel still include those breakfast egg-roll things?"

2 of 237 comments (clear)

  1. Australia's inventing all the cool stuff. by marcsiry · · Score: 5, Interesting


    First the Metal Storm, now this!

    Soon Australians will be able to fly up to anyone, anywhere in the world, within minutes, and then cut them to ribbons.

    I wish I was Australian.

    --
    Marc Siry || interactive media professional, motorcycle enthusiast ||
  2. Re:A little more info by ender81b · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A little more info from Encylopedia Astronautica. A scramjet is vastly more efficent than standard chemical rockets because only half the fuel has to be carried (hydrogen). Also scramjets have a greater ISP than most regular chemical engines and have no moving parts, unlike the hundreds of parts on moden rocket engines.

    Taken from here

    air/LH2 (scramjet) ISP=1,550

    Space Shuttle Main Engines

    ISP = 453

    Obviously scramjets are vastly more efficent. Of course ION engines have ISP values of roughly 5,000-6,000 and fusion another magnitude greater, etc. Still lots of room for improvement.