First Ever Scramjet Reaches Mach 10

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."

Comments

Re:Why was the altitude changed?

[Gryle]

do you have a fucking point? learn metric you backwards country
We'll learn the metric system when you learn the proper rules of capitalization and punctuation. Do we have a deal? :)

Microsoft Bought Them.

[twitter]

This is cool, yes, but the emphasis on "first" seems a bit off.

The vague, hyped up and imageless press release is typical of the new management's style. The Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation signed an unconditional surrender to M$ in May. I found those pictures when I visited the official media release and saw Steve Ballmer instead of scram jets in the image gallery. It's almost like they did this on purpose, just to show you that Vista is being accepted by any government agency.