Faster Than A Speeding Bullet
The joke is --it flew.
ABC news
Last Update: Saturday, March 25, 2006. 5:10pm (AEDT)
Scramjet ... UQ team leading international efforts. (File photo) (Reuters TV)
Scramjet team 'happy' after Woomera flight
A supersonic jet engine known as a scramjet, which could dramatically reduce the time of air travel around the world, has been tested in South Australia's far north.
Seconds after the jet set off, there was a supersonic boom across the Woomera test range.
It travelled more than 300 kilometres into the air before crashing ten minutes later, 400 kilometres down the range.
The University of Queensland is heading an international team testing the scramjet technology, which travels up to 8,000 kilometres an hour - almost eight times the speed of sound.
Team leader Allan Paul says the flight went well but it will take several months to analyse the data they have collected.
He says the team is happy with the result so far.
"I haven't seen them on such a high for a long time," he said.
"It's been a hard couple of weeks, in fact it's been hard since Christmas, and the team has really responded well."
He says the launch went according to plan but there were a few tense moments.
"You're looking at it as it goes up, and you're worried if it's going to make it," he said.
"It's probably a very unnerving feeling actually."
Dr Paul says they should have some preliminary results by tomorrow.
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An international project team has held a successful trial of a supersonic jet in the South Australian outback.
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