UK to Australia in Two Hours

Long haul flights may become a thing of the past thanks to the successful launch of a scramjet engine at an outback test range. Scientists hope the engine will propel the next generation of supersonic planes, with predictions that a flight between Sydney and London could take just two hours.

The scramjet rocket reached speeds of mach 10 - ten times the speed of sound - after blasting off at the Woomera range in South Australia on Friday.

Australia’s Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) said it was believed to be the first time a scramjet had been ignited within the Earth’s atmosphere.

“It looks like we’ve been very successful,” DSTO spokesman Steve Butler said. “We’ve got to go away and collate the data, that will take a few weeks, but it looks very promising.”

The beauty of a scramjet compared with a conventional rocket is that conventional rockets need to carry liquid oxygen to burn with a liquid fuel, such as hydrogen, to create thrust. The scramjet’s oxygen is taken from the atmosphere, hence the craft becomes smaller, lighter and faster.