A drone with a rotating detonation rocket engine' approached the speed of sound

venus Aerospace has completed the inaugural test flight of a drone fitted with its rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE), accelerating it to just under the speed of sound.

- PETER RAY ALLISON

 

The company wants to one day build superfast commercial jets using this new type of engine. In a 24 February test flight, the company flew the drone, which is 2.4 metres long and weighs 136 kilograms, to an altitude of 3,658 metres with an Aero L-29 Delfín plane before it was deployed and the RDRE was activated. The drone flew ten miles at Mach 0.9 – over 680 miles per hour – using 80 per cent of the RDRE’s available thrust. The 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.