How do you like the idea of hopping on a business travel flight in Sydney at 7am and arriving in London around 10? They say it’s a small world and ‘hypersonic’ flight technology is on its way to making it even smaller!
Speeds of 5840 kilometres per hour were recorded during the second test flight of a hypersonic jet conducted by Australian and US defence experts at the Woomera military range in the Australian outback. This is double the pace of the most advanced jet fighter in the world and six times quicker than typical passenger aircraft.
But hypersonic business travel is still a way off yet. The Woomera test involved blasting a vehicle 200km into space before it dove back to Earth at hypersonic speed, providing invaluable data for the scientists trying to develop the world’s first hypersonic engine.