RAF Top Guns will fly new Tempest jets with a “virtual cockpit” instead of traditional controls.
The 4,000mph fighter is due to replace the Typhoon from 2035 and will be piloted or guided remotely.
Pilots will wear virtual-reality gloves and will be able to charge course with a wink or gesture.
Rather than the familiar control column, the cockpit will feature a computer which relays information into a helmet-mounted display screen.
Scramjets capable of flying at Mach 15 will make it easier and cheaper to send spacecraft and people into orbit, says hypersonics expert Michael Smart.
Sending satellites, spacecraft and humans into space is an expensive business. If humanity wants to venture further across the Solar System, we need ways of reducing the cost. Perhaps the easiest way to do this is to make the vehicles we use to launch missions into space reusable.
Michael Smart, chair of hypersonic propulsion at the University of Queensland, believes hypersonic planes are the solution. He spent 10 years designing hypersonic engines called scramjets for Nasa before establishing his own research group, which now works with the Australian Department of Defence, Science and Technology and the US Air Force.
Continue reading… “The next big leap in space travel will use hypersonic planes”
There are plans to start running test flights of the ‘hypersonic’ jet in the mid-2020s.
Developers are working on a “hypersonic” jet engine that could see commuters flying from Sydney to London in four hours, and London to New York in one. It’s called a SABRE—that is, Synergetic Air Breathing Rocket Engine—and it allows planes to hit speeds of Mach 5.4 (6400 kilometres per hour). Hence the “hypersonic” moniker: whereas “supersonic” refers to a rate of travel that simply exceeds the speed of sound, “hypersonic” speeds typically exceed it five or six times over.
The hybrid hydrogen-oxygen engine is also way greener and cheaper than current air travel, The Telegraph reports, and will give aircraft the potential to fly in space.
Continue reading… “This ‘Spaceplane’ could get you from Sydney to London in four hours”
The sound alone of something ripping by at hypersonic speed just feet above the desert floor is worth the click!
The internet is full of many wondrous things, most of which you have likely already seen. But something you probably have never seen before is an object rocketing along a set of tracks at 6,599 miles per hour, or right around Mach 8.6. No, I did not screw those metrics up, the video below shows a test being conducted on an object that is moving far beyond the threshold of hypersonic speed (Mach 5) just a few feet over the desert floor near Alamagordo, New Mexico.
Continue reading… “This video of a rocket sled doing 6,599mph at Hollman AFB is absolute insanity”
Reaction Engines of the UK could be part of a winning group of bidders for open-ended hypersonic weapons development.
They have proven an innovative pre-cooling system which does not require the development of new materials to handle the heat of hypersonic flight speeds.
The US Air Force Research Labs are already working with them. They would need to partner with US companies like Lockheed or Boeing to get the big military contract.
The pre-coolers are made from thousands of thin-walled tubes to provide high surface area to low weight. Each tube is joined to an inlet and outlet manifold, which allows coolant to be injected and removed for the cooling process. We’re the only people in the world with the heat exchanger manufacturing experience to bond thousands of joints in a single operation, and achieve zero leakage. The joints in our pre-cooler modules are hermetically sealed, meaning that the gas which escapes can be measured by the molecule.
Continue reading… “Reaction Pre-cooled Engines could deliver reusable hypersonic planes by 2025”
A team of Chinese researchers has claimed to have designed a hypersonic jet that could travel at 6,000km/h, five times faster than the speed of sound.
SpaceX’s founder, Elon Musk, presented his vision for getting people to Mars within five years at the International Astronautical Congress in the South Australia city of Adelaide on Friday.
U.S. military unveils a hypersonic flying missile that can strike a target anywhere in the world in just 30 minutes.
Continue reading… “U.S. military unveils hypersonic weapon that travels 5 times the speed of sound”
Artist’s rendition showing the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2).
DARPA has launched an experimental unmanned hypersonic glider from an air base on the central California coast.
Continue reading… “DARPA launches hypersonic aircraft that goes 13,000 mph”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.