The Startup based in Houston, Venus Aerospace, has completed the first test flight of a rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE) in the United States.
The launch took place on Wednesday (May 14) by Spaceport America in New Mexico. A small rocket equipped with the Rdre de Venus took off at 9:37 AM EDT (1337 GMT; 7:37 am local time in New Mexico).
The milestone marked the first successful test of this engine from the US floor. And tok Venus a “step closer to making the high speed flight accessible, affordable and sustainable,” the company said in a statement.
“This is the time we have legs working for five years,” said the CEO of Venus, Sassie Duggleby, in the statement.
The test serves as a design test for the RDRE of Venus and keeps the company on the way to a high -speed flight based on the track, he added: “We have shown that this technology works, not only in simulations or in the laboratory, but in the air.”
Venus Rdre uses a compact and high efficiency design that the company expects any Mally feeding plane to Mach 6-Seishes is the sound starting speed of conventional tracks. Compared to traditional rocket engines, Rdres save a greater boost in smaller packages, but so far technology has been mainly theoretical.
Normally, rocket engines burn fuel in a combustion chamber in a constant and controlled process. Rdres use a continuous detonation wave that travels in a circle inside a ring -shaped camera, which produces greater pressure and efficiency and results in an increase in thrust with less fuel.
“This milestone shows that our engine works outside the laboratory, in real flight conditions,” said Andrew Duggleby of Venus Cto in the same statement. “We have an engine that not only works, but works reliable and efficiently, and that is what makes it scalable.”
The RDRE is designed to function in conjunction with the detonation of air breathing VDR2 Ramjet-A combination that the company says that it will allow a sustained hypersonic flight without the need for reinforcement. (Hypersonic flight is generally defined as Mach 5 and more).
“This is the basis that we need that, combined with a Ramjet, complete the system from takeoff to sustained hypersonic flight,” said Andrew Duggleby.
With the successful test in the books, Venus is planning the large -scale propulsion test of its integrated system as it advances to qualify the design of its future Stargazer M4, a reusable pin plane capable of reaching Mach 4.
