Slashdot Mirror
New Jet Engine Tested
SpaceAdmiral writes "A revolutionary new jet engine has recently been tested in Australia. It is hoped that the engine, designed by UK defense firm QinetiQ and capable of Mach 7.6, will pave the way for ultra fast, intercontinental air travel. Scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) engines have no moving parts and take all of the oxygen they need (to burn hydrogen fuel) from the air, allowing for larger loads than rockets which must carry oxygen for fuel."
IIRC, Australia's Qantas Airways was until very recently the only major airline without a crash. So, either they are good at what they do, or Australia's not a popular tourist attraction.
It is remarkable how similar the intended future use for scramjet technology is to that described in a Philip K Dick novel by the name of Man in the High Castle, namely passenger airliners and space travel. The extremely fast ascent, followed by a relatively brief period in the lower stratosphere, and finally another period of intense speed, this time descending towards the relevant destination. Of course, in the novel the "Rocket ships" described are probably intended as an evolution of the V1/V2 bombs used in World War 2, a technology very different from scramjets - and completely neglectful of the potentially massive chemical costs per launch far outweighing even the most ostentatious of passenger fares :) . But even so, the similarity in timeframe description and such is remarkable considering the V2 was little more than a predecessor to the SCUD missile, and that scramjet tech was unheard of at the time of writing (1962).
He wasn't the first of course, H.G. Wells predicted something resembling an atomic bomb, together with tanks during Edwardian times. It would be interesting to examine trends in developing technology, to see whether the cause and effect correlation with sci fiction predictions is beyond the aesthetic. We can already observe that many aesthetic features of say, some of Star Trek's technology, has made its way into the modern technology of today. Eg. The flip communicators -> mobile phones etc. It is a testament to the human imagination that much of the technology posited in past fiction is coming to fruition today.