GabyThe Texas-based aerospace company Venus Aerospace is one of the few companies captivated by the idea of hypersonic jet travel.
Currently, the company’s engineers are developing a passenger airliner called Stargazer. It will reach speeds of over 7,300 km/h, roughly six times the speed of sound, and will fly higher than other aircraft.
If the plane is approved for passenger flights, it would be able to fly the roughly 5,572-kilometer route from London to New York in under an hour. That would make it about three times faster than the legendary Concorde, which reached speeds of up to 2,160 km/h.
The heart of the aircraft is a turbojet engine, also known as the VDR2. According to Andrew Daggulby, co-founder of Venus Aerospace, this engine will enable a “revolution in hypersonic flight.”
When VDR2 is ready, the company will initially use it in high-speed drones, with plans to later install it in the Stargazer airliner. The company has invested $33 million in the aircraft, the Daily Mail reported.
Earlier this year, the VDR2 engine was successfully tested on a small drone. Designers have scheduled a second drone test for 2025.
Venus Aerospace has released concept images of the Stargazer, but it is still unclear how close the company is to producing a prototype. If the project goes ahead, Stargazer would become the first commercial passenger aircraft to exceed the speed of sound since the Concorde.
The Concorde, which was retired more than 20 years ago, flew at a maximum altitude of about 18,300 meters. Venus Aerospace’s high-speed airliner would be able to soar even higher — up to 33,500 meters.
The supersonic Concorde, which operated for 27 years until 2003, was not the first aircraft to break the sound barrier. The first was the American experimental plane Bell X-1. On October 14, 1947, pilot Charles Elwood Yeager flew it to about 1,225 km/h.
