Venus Aerospace just released its Mach 9 spaceplane concept

June 13, 2022
Stargazer is allegedly capable of one-hour global travel, Christopher McFadden reports for Interesting Engineering.

BENTONVILLE Ark., -  At the UP.Summit in Bentonville, Arkansas, Venus Aerospace, a startup creating hypersonic aircraft, unveiled the "Stargazer," the company's first conceptual hypersonic vehicle design, Christopher McFadden reports for Interesting Engineering. Continue reading original article.

The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:

13 June 2022 - McFadden writes that "Stargazer" is a proposed Mach 9 hypersonic drone and a Mach 9 space plane, both of which are allegedly capable of one-hour global travel. The hypersonic aircraft will take off from a regular airport and then fly to the edge of space.

Venus says if its concept comes to fruition, it will carry up to 12 passengers and will take off from a traditional airport before climbing to the edge of space - 170,000 feet - before bringing passengers to their destination in around an hour of flight time.

The technology behind the proposed spaceplane is yet to be released. The company hasn't even disclosed what sort of fuel the spaceplane in intended to use, though Venus says it will not have a carbon impact and that they are working to minimize the sound the hypersonic craft may have while flying far overhead.

“We worked with NASA at the Johnson Space Center and were able to access the information from the sonic boom testing from the Space Shuttle program,” Dr. Andrew Duggleby said. Duggleby, along with Sarah Duggleby, founded the company. “We determined that at altitude and speed flying you will not be able to hear us—we will be flying at 170,000 feet at Mach 9.”

Related: U.S. military moving forward on hypersonics

Related: NASA unveils plan to ask industry for enabling technologies for future near-hypersonic passenger aircraft

Related: Meeting SWaP needs for electronics and sensors for hypersonic flight

Jamie Whitney, Associate Editor
Intelligent Aerospace

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