Venus Aerospace has completed the inaugural test flight of a drone fitted with its rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE), reaching speeds just under the speed of sound. The company aims to develop superfast commercial jets using this new engine technology.
Venus Aerospace has completed the inaugural test flight of a drone fitted with its" rotating detonation rocket engine " — accelerating it to just under the speed of sound. The company wants to one day build superfast commercial jets using this new type of engine.
The drone flew 10 miles at Mach 0.9 — over 680 miles per hour — using 80% of the RDRE’s available thrust. The successful flight proved the viability of RDRE and the associated onboard flight systems. Three weeks earlier, Venus Aerospace demonstrated the viability of its RDRE technology with a long-duration test burn — during which engineers showed their engine worked for the duration of this test flight.
See moreRather than using a continuous burn like most rocket engines, RDRE operates by a detonation wave continuously rotating around an annulus, or ring-shaped, chamber. The fuel, hydrogen peroxide, is injected into the annulus and the repeated detonations become self-sustaining after the initial ignition. In the RDRE test flight, the annulus was approximately 12 inches in diameter and produced 1,200 pounds of thrust.
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Venus Aerospace Drone Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine RDRE Test Flight Superfast Commercial Jets Engine Technology
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