Breaking the Sound Barrier: Venus Aerospace’s Pursuit of Hypersonic Flight

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Venus Aerospace, a US-based company, has been pursuing a groundbreaking concept: the development of an aircraft capable of reaching nine times the speed of sound. This impressive feat would allow passengers to travel anywhere in the world within just 60 minutes. Although news about the company’s progress has been relatively scarce since the summer of 2022, recent reports indicate that important strides have been made towards turning this ambitious idea into a reality. With a target launch date of 2030, Venus Aerospace is hard at work refining their technology.

Japan has successfully tested a rotary detonation engine in space

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The basic concept of the rotating detonation engine (RDE) is so simple that it was born in the 1950s. RDE as a concept was first conceived at the University of Michigan in the 1950s, and is based on the idea that, unlike conventional internal combustion engines, the fuel is not burned but exploded in a circular chamber where the shock wave from the explosion travels along, providing propulsion while triggering another explosion – in other words, the process is self-sustaining until the fuel is used up.