A US-based propulsion company, Venus Aerospace, said Wednesday it had completed a short flight test of its rotating detonation rocket engine at Spaceport America in New Mexico.<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s chief executive and co-founder, Sassie Duggleby, characterized the flight as \u201chistoric.\u201d It is believed to be the first US-based flight test of an idea that has been discussed academically for decades, a rotating detonation rocket engine. The concept has previously been tested in a handful of other countries, but never with a high-thrust engine.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy proving this engine works beyond the lab, Venus brings the world closer to a future where hypersonic travel\u2014traversing the globe in under two hours\u2014becomes possible,\u201d Duggleby told Ars.<\/p>\n
The company has only released limited information about the test. The small rocket, powered by the company\u2019s 2,000-pound-thrust engine, launched from a rail in New Mexico. The vehicle flew for about half a minute, and, as planned, did not break the sound barrier.<\/p>\n
Governments around the world have been interested in rotating detonation engine technology for a long time because it has the potential to significantly increase fuel efficiency in a variety of applications, from Navy carriers to rocket engines.<\/p>\n
In contrast to a traditional rocket engine, in which a highly pressurized propellant and an oxidizer are injected into a combustion chamber where they burn and produce an energetic exhaust plume, a rotating detonation engine is different in that a wave of detonation travels around a circular channel. This is sustained by the injection of fuel and oxidizer and produces a shockwave that travels outward at supersonic speed.<\/p>\n
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Sassie Duggleby and her husband, Andrew Duggleby, founded Venus Aerospace nearly five years ago with the long-term goal of developing powerful rotating detonation engines and building a hypersonic aircraft that could carry perhaps a dozen passengers and travel at astonishingly fast speeds worldwide.<\/p>\n
Such a prospect is many years into the future, however. In the meantime, Venus is looking at more near-term opportunities and revenue sources. The company is seeking to position itself as a leader in affordable hypersonic flight for commercial and defense applications.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is vital for US interests that the government continues to fund efforts to maintain America\u2019s economic competitiveness and national security,\u201d Sassie Duggleby said. \u201cHypersonics is one of the critical technologies to remain ahead of our national competitors. We\u2019re fortunate to have robust interest from both government and commercial sectors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sassie Duggleby said Venus cannot disclose specific customers yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re actively engaged with US defense and national security agencies as well as commercial partners exploring hypersonic applications in logistics, aerospace, and future mobility\u2014including large primes,\u201d she said. \u201cThe enthusiasm we\u2019re seeing reflects a broad recognition that Venus\u2019s technology can unlock new operational and economic possibilities across multiple markets.\u201d<\/p>\n
Venus has a long way to go to reach its ultimate goal of highly efficient hypersonic commercial flight. But the engine that flew this week is a good start toward proving that such a future, at least, is possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A US-based propulsion company, Venus Aerospace, said Wednesday it had completed a short flight test of its rotating detonation rocket engine at Spaceport America in New Mexico. The company\u2019s chief executive and co-founder, Sassie Duggleby, characterized the flight as \u201chistoric.\u201d It is believed to be the first US-based flight test of an idea that has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6132,21,9585],"class_list":["post-44238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-rotating-detonation-engine","tag-space","tag-venus-aerospace"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44238"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}