Photo: The latest scramjet design from the Hypersonic Propulsion team at the University of Queensland. (Supplied: University of Queensland) Related Story:Scramjet engine launches 'beautifully' Map: Brisbane 4000
Travel from the Southern to the Northern Hemisphere could soon be as quick as a road trip if a Brisbane scientist has his way.
The Hypersonic Propulsion team at the University of Queensland (UQ) is studying the physical material needed to withstand high heat to enable scramjets to fly at high speeds across the world.
A scramjet is a supersonic engine that operates without a compressor or turbine machinery and relies on air being rammed into an engine to create heat so fuel can be burned.
The chair of Hypersonic Propulsion at UQ, Professor Michael Smart, has been working on scramjet technology in Queensland for the past decade.
Imagine travelling three kilometres in one second.
Professor Michael Smart
"Imagine travelling three kilometres in one second," he said.
Professor Smart said scramjets could be seen in the skies "in our children's lifetime".
"This is the future for passenger aircraft and the US are looking at combination engines to try and meld the gas engine and a scramjet," he told 612 ABC Brisbane's Kelly Higgins-Devine.
"The limitation of a scramjet is that you can't take-off from the ground because you're using air ramming in the air you have to be moving in the air quite fast for it to work.
"It's hard to predict the flow of technologies as it can just depend on a few people saying, 'OK, I want to invest my money in that'."
A scramjet would move at a speed more than seven times faster than a normal aircraft, according to Professor Smart.
"A regular plane travels just lower than 1,000 kilometres per hour, the Concord flew at 2,000kph, and we're talking about 7,000kph up to 10,000kph," he said.
Photo: Professor Michael Smart has been part of the UQ Hypersonic Propulsion team for a decade. (612 ABC Brisbane: Jessica Hinchliffe) Testing scramjets in the upper atmosphereThe Hypersonic Propulsion team have worked closely with the Australian and US governments to test flying scramjets in the upper atmosphere.
"To actually fly them is the proof that it works," Professor Smart said.
"There are different groups all around the world including NASA who are trying to find a way to use them in a sensible way."
Professor Smart said the challenges that faced the technology was the material the scramjets were made from.
"Things get really hot due to the friction of the air and it becomes a challenge of managing that," he said.
"A lot of the work we're doing is looking at composite materials to use.
"The other challenge is making them reusable we don't want to have to build an aircraft each time we fly to London, so that's a material challenge."
Re-usable space technology External Link:Scramjets at UQ
Professor Smart said his team had also begun looking at how scramjets could be used to put small satellites into space.
"As part of that we would like to make satellite systems that are re-usable," he said.
"At the moment all rockets that put things into space are thrown away completely.
"We're doing a flight test in December looking at new technology with re-usable space technology."
Topics:science-and-technology,air-transport,human-interest,physics,research,brisbane-4000
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-17/scramjets-to-reduce-travel-time-between-london-and-sydney/6946724?source=rss
