A new climb-to-altitude record!
Mk-II Aurora descending from Apogee. Credit: Dawn Aerospace
Dawn Hypersonics has just achieved a new climb to altitude record! Also from that, they went supersonic and flew to 82,500ft!
This marks the first time a civilian aeroplane has gone supersonic since concorde!
Dawn Hypersonics
Dawn Hypersonics is a newly unveiled startup part of Dawn Aerospace. Dawn Aerospace is a company founded in 2017 with the vision to accelerate the next generation of space users with scalable and sustainable ways to delivers payload to orbit.
They currently have 120 staff, 82 thrusters in space, and 53 flights of the Mk-II Aurora spaceplane demo.
Mk-II Aurora
Mk-II Aurora. Credit: Dawn Aerospace
This demonstration aircraft will be the highest performance vehicle ever to takeoff from a runway. Flying faster than the SR-71, climbing faster than an F-15, and flying to greater altitudes than any aeroplane before, this is a really ambitious project!
On November the 12th, the Mk-II Aurora flew at Mach 1.1, an altitude of 82,500ft, and beat the previous record of ground level to 66,000ft by 4.2 seconds! Reaching apogee in just 118.6 seconds. The previous record was held by a highly modified F-15 Streak Eagle in the 70s.
To top this all off, after this record breaking flight, they flew again 6 hours later!
Mk-II at Apogee, 82,500ft. Credit: Dawn Aerospace
Thoughts and impressions
As a Brit I’m incredibly sad that Reaction Engines went bankrupt. So to see this development in the pursuit of hypersonic aeroplane is incredible.
I’m interested to see how they develop their pre-cooler for their engine and how they go about going hypersonic. Excited to watch their journey unfold!
