Hypersonic tests aim at space

With the shuttle programme mothballed and Concorde but a distant memory, it could be argued that we are entering a lull period in aerospace innovation.

That’s not to say all development has ceased; but it will mostly likely look rather different from the bloated budgets of bygone days.

Indeed, Virgin Galactic is due take its first paid-up customers to the edge of space this year, while Oxford-based Reaction Engines is in the early stages of developing Skylon – an unpiloted, reusable single-stage-to-orbit spacecraft capable of delivering payloads.

A similar project that has received considerably less attention is the Australian-led international SCRAMSPACE (Scramjet-based Access-to-Space Systems).

While not quite as ambitious in scope as Skylon, SCRAMSPACE I is certainly further down the line in terms of technology readiness, with wind tunnel tests successfully completed in Germany last month and a full test flight penned for March 2013.

The 1.8m-long axisymmetric prototype spacecraft looks, for all intents and purposes, much like a regular rocket. But it actually aims to overcome many of the drawbacks of existing space access systems with its supersonic combustion ramjet (SCRamjet) air-breathing engines.