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First Ever Scramjet Reaches Mach 10

Posted by Zonk on from the really-super-very-short-take-off-and-landing-or-rsvstol dept.

stjobe writes with the news that a group of US and Australian scientists successfully tested a supersonic scramjet engine in the Australian Outback on Friday. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that a rocket carrying the engine reached mach 10, and climbed to an altitude of 330 miles before the apparatus re-entered the Earth's atmosphere. "Australia's Defense Science and Technology Organization (DSTO) said it was believed to be the first time a scramjet had been ignited within the Earth's atmosphere ... Scramjets are supersonic combustion engines that use oxygen from the atmosphere for fuel, making them lighter and faster than fuel carrying rockets. Scientists hope that one day a scramjet aircraft fired into space could cut traveling time from Sydney to London to as little as two hours."

10 of 235 comments (clear)

  1. Re:X-43A? by evil_neanderthal · · Score: 5, Funny

    mach 10? not fast enough! i want one for my microwave! faster pizza bagles! faster ezmac! faster! can i mount one to my pelvis! can't wait to see what the missus thinks. miss. mistress! huh? i need a gun that shoots scramjets with knives on the end! can we start calling it warp 10 instead of mach 10? they should have taped a dvd to it to set a data transfer record! we need a new unit for that! dvd-mph! gigafoot-hertz! i want the 13 gfhz model for my toaster! butter the whole toaster so it doesn't get incinerated from air friction! does it come with internet? i want one with internet! it needs bluetooth! eeeeeeee

  2. Re:Why was the altitude changed? by drgonzo59 · · Score: 4, Funny

    And besides we all know that God uses the imperial system and only communists use metric...Hail Bush!

  3. Re:Bzzzt. Wrong! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Bzzzt. GAY!

  4. Re:Mach unit valid in space? by theeddie55 · · Score: 3, Funny

    for consistency, would you prefer if they used the speed of sound in a vacuum?

    --
    Blazing Spiders
  5. Re:Relativity in a Dark Place by craznar · · Score: 4, Funny

    As the theory of relativity breaks down when someone switches the lights off - as C becomes ZERO.

    Oh no ...Einstein didn't think of that.

    --
    EMail: 0110001101100010010000000110001101110010 0110000101111010011011100110000101110010 0010111001100011011011110110
  6. Re:Why was the altitude changed? by Chibi+Merrow · · Score: 2, Funny

    So why was the summary changed by slashdot editors to the imperial unit?


    Mostly just to piss people like you off.
    --
    Maxim: People cannot follow directions.
    Increases in truth directly with the length of time spent explaining them
  7. 2 hours by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Including airport queues that's only about 5 or 6 hours.

  8. Re:330 miles is well beyond the Kármán l by jamesh · · Score: 4, Funny

    Message intercepted. Cover blown. Please return to base for debriefing.

  9. Re:Gah. Once more, with formatting by 6Yankee · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well, that's one way to get +10 Informative ;)

  10. Gah. Once more, with formatting by roman_mir · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now, that was an explanation! Right now I regret that I'd already posted to this discussion - I can't use my mod points on you. THANKS.

    --
    You can't handle the truth.