Shooting for the stars

Scientists in Australia launched a supersonic scramjet engine into space for the second time last week, as they develop a device which could revolutionise air travel. University of Queensland scientists launched the scramjet, which reached an altitude of more than 325km and travelled at about 7,500km/h. The launch, carried out with researchers from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, followed the first blastoff at the outback Woomera Rocket Range a week earlier. 'The rocket launch looked as expected, we had another clean liftoff,' designer Michael Smart said. Scramjet engines are hi-tech devices which fly above the Earth's atmosphere at several times the speed of sound. It is hoped they will ultimately see commercial flight times slashed and be used to cut the cost of launching satellites. The tests are designed to compare the differences between various engine shapes. Scramjets do not have to carry their own oxygen supplies for combustion and have the advantage of having no moving parts. But the launch of the engines is problematic as they only start working at about five times the speed of sound. Scientists are aiming to refine the engines to devise one which would be good enough to be incorporated into a vehicle.?Agence France-Press