Sustained hypersonic flight

HiFiRE 5B lifting off from Woomera (Credit: Australian Department of Defence)

At gizmag David Szondy reports,

The Australian Department of Defence has announced the successful launch of a hypersonic aircraft called Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation (HIFiRE) 5B at the Woomera Test range. According to a statement, the craft reached a velocity of Mach 7.5 (5,710 mph, 9,188 km/h) and an altitude of 278 km (173 mi) as part of an Australian-United States program to study fundamental technologies needed to travel over five times the speed of sound.

According to the University of Queensland (UQ), HIFiRE 5B was one of 10 experimental flights intended to gain a better understanding of the physics and aerodynamics of sustained hypersonic flight, which could one day lead to travel from Sydney to London in under two hours.

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