3D-printed aircraft Dart flies at hypersonic speed

Successful maiden flight for Dart AE: The hypersonic aircraft from Australian aerospace company Hypersonix Launch Systems has completed its first flight. Dart reached more than five times the speed of sound.

The mission "That's not a Knife" launched on February 27th at 7 PM local time (February 28th, 1 AM our time) from the launch site on Wallops Island in the US state of Virginia. A Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron (Haste) carrier rocket from US space company Rocket Lab brought the aircraft into the upper atmosphere and released it there.

There, Dart started its scramjet engine and then flew under its own power at a speed of more than Mach 5 before the aircraft plunged into the Atlantic. "This mission allowed us to test propulsion, materials, and control systems under real hypersonic conditions," said Michael Smart, one of the founders of Hypersonix Launch Systems. "At these speeds and temperatures, there are no alternatives for flight data. The results of this mission will be directly incorporated into the development of future hypersonic aircraft."

Dart is set to fly at Mach 7

Dart AE is a 3.5-meter-long, 300-kilogram unmanned aircraft. Hypersonix Launch Systems states its range is 1000 kilometers. The maximum speed is said to be Mach 7, over 8500 km/h.

It is powered by Hypersonix's Spartan engine. This is a Supersonic Combustion Ramjet (Scramjet), an engine with no moving parts. The air is compressed not by rotors, but by the speed at which it is forced into the combustion chamber.

What's special about Dart is that both the aircraft itself and the engine are built using 3D printing processes. According to the manufacturer, the speed achievable with the engine depends on the choice of construction material. The engine is reusable and runs on hydrogen.

(wpl)