back to article India tests Mach 6 scramjet

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully tested a Mach 6 scramjet. Scramjets ignite a stream of gas moving at supersonic speed. The result is serious energy and the ability to hit astounding speeds it's hoped might one day make air travel less tedious, or provide a method of lifting spacecraft high into …

  1. NoneSuch Silver badge
    Coat

    I'd bet serious money that their engineers have Kerbal Space Program loaded on their PC's.

  2. Lars Silver badge
    Happy

    What about

    Some fact checking at ElReg. India 1,251,695,584 (July 2015 est.), China 1,367,485,388 (July 2015 est.), or has that much changed in about a year.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  3. Chris G

    Congratulations India

    India produces some of the world's best scientists, if the country could just get around corruption and political infighting they would be a force to be reckoned with.

    But it shows what can be done.

    1. Lars Silver badge
      Happy

      Re: Congratulations India

      @Chris G, India not a force to be reckoned with to day?. A economy about three times larger than the UK economy. No other country with political infighting you could name?. Your congratulations sound a lot like the "Good for You" in best British tradition. Perhaps you should ask them to build the Skylon.

      1. Chris G

        Re: Congratulations India

        India is a force to be reckoned with today but there has always been an undercurrent of corruption and there is a huge amount of infighting that limits the potential of many things that India has already achieved but not taken as far as it could go.

        An economy 3 times that of the UK with a population 20 times that of the UK is somewhat limiting but with a growth in GDP of 5% in 2013 it is outstripping most of the World. If India could get it's act together who knows what it could achieve?

        My congratulations are genuine, coming from someone whose mother was half Indian and having relatives in India. But, I know they could do better and so do many Indians.

        As for Skylon, the Aerospace industry is certainly more productive as a whole in India, perhaps a partnership would be worth a shot now that the EU is on it's way out of the picture.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Congratulations India

          "As for Skylon, the Aerospace industry is certainly more productive as a whole in India, perhaps a partnership would be worth a shot now that the EU is on it's way out of the picture."

          We'd be competing with Russia, with whom India has been collaborating on several aerospace projects, most relevant to the article being the BrahMos supersonic & BrahMos 2 hypersonic cruise missiles. India is also collaborating with Sukhoi on future development of the PAK FA.

      2. Johnboy22

        Re: Congratulations India

        Meh. Sour grapes. Secular, stable and plural, quietly and not spectacularly noise wise, developing, as we always do...we have been around long enough and faced off enough of the barbarian simpleton to know how to pace things in this shocked and awed world.

        So, tough luck, chum.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Scramjet uses

    I imagine that missiles that can take out carriers and missile cruisers from the other side of the world are a higher priority than either of the other options. Intercepting a Mach 6 cruise missile would be interesting.

    1. SkippyBing

      Re: Scramjet uses

      ' Intercepting a Mach 6 cruise missile would be interesting.'

      Guiding it would be as well.

      1. AndyS

        Re: Scramjet uses

        >Guiding it would be as well.

        I guess it could always slow down as it approached its target? Or it could simply be a carrier, which would then release more conventional weapons once within range?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Scramjet uses

      BrahMos 2 ~Mach 7

    3. thegroucho

      Re: Scramjet uses

      Laser, railgun, CIWS or even traditional SAMs will do nicely, provided you have the radar to detect the threat and provide guidance.

      Admittedly railgun and laser are not mature enough tech but so is the scramjet.

      Typically you will be shooting in the direction where the scramjet is coming from, so even if you are slower that is not necessarily a problem.

      And unlike A10 Warthog which can take a lot of abuse the smallest of hits will cause the scramjet to evaporate in a spectacular fireball.

      Although if it is a sea-skimmer then chances are you will need to learn to swim pretty quickly.

  5. caffeine addict

    Hang on... it was a Mach6 scramjet, but it only fired for 5 seconds? How fast was it going before the scramjet kicked in? Or is Mach6 just a theoretical speed?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      A 320 km flight in 300 seconds means an average of 1.0666 km/sec - 3840 km/h = 2386 mph, so a 5 second peak top speed of Mach 6 seems plausible.

  6. Real Ale is Best

    Efficiency

    How efficient are scramjets compared with other sorts of jet?

    e.g. would a scramjet powered concord alike use less fuel than concord did?

    1. Sgt_Oddball

      Re: Efficiency

      a quick check of the wiki page for scramjets gives you all the maths goodness you need with regards to this (plus a handy graph giving a vague idea of what the maths relates to)

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