Venus makes first flight of supersonic drone contender

The eight foot, 300lb drone was dropped at 12,000 ft and accelerated to Mach 0.9, flying for 10 miles. It was powered by a hydrogen peroxide monopropellant engine at 80% thrust in order to not exceed Mach 1.

Venus Aerospace's supersonic flight test drone has completed its inaugural flight.

The eight foot, 300lb drone was dropped at an altitude of 12,000 ft and accelerated to a top speed of Mach 0.9, flying for 10 miles. It was powered by a hydrogen peroxide monopropellant engine at 80% thrust in order to not exceed Mach 1. The test successfully demonstrated flight controls, stability, one leg of the ultimate Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE) propulsion system, telemetry, ground operations, and air launch. “Using an air-launched platform and a rocket-with-wing configuration allows us to cheaply and quickly get to the minimum viable test of our RDRE as a hypersonic engine. The team executed with professionalism and has a wealth of data to anchor and tweak for the next flight,” says CTO & Co-Founder Andrew Duggleby.

“This is how you do hard things: one bite at a time. Up next is RDRE flight, and ultimately hypersonic flight, proving that the RDRE is the engine that unlocks the hypersonic economy,” adds CEO & Co-Founder Sarah “Sassie” Duggleby.