The European Space Agency is developing a hypersonic research vehicle called Invictus that could eventually cut the Lond...

The European Space Agency is developing a hypersonic research vehicle called Invictus that could eventually cut the London-to-Sydney flight time from as long as 27 hours down to around three. The aircraft is designed to fly at more than five times the speed of sound, climbing to the edge of the atmosphere at roughly 80,000 feet before racing across the globe. Invictus is not a passenger plane. Its prime contractor, Frazer-Nash, has been clear that the vehicle's purpose is to prove technologies that "could ultimately underpin much faster long-haul travel in future civil platforms," with its first actual missions focused on launching satellites into orbit. The development timeline is long. The design phase is due to wrap up this year, small-scale engine testing is scheduled for 2027, a first flight at lower speed is estimated around 2034, and full-speed hypersonic testing is not expected until around 2036. Gordon Stevenson, a director of the Spaceport Machrihanish testing site, put it plainly: "You could be in Sydney, Australia in three hours. It depends on the speed at which it flies and the success of the technology, but it would be amazing wouldn't it?" ESA's earlier LAPCAT study set a similar target years ago, proposing a Brussels-to-Sydney flight of between two and four hours at speeds ranging from Mach 4 to Mach 8. That research laid some of the groundwork for where Invictus is heading now. A separate effort is also underway. Swiss start-up Destinus is building a hydrogen-powered hypersonic airliner aimed at carrying 400 passengers, with a London-to-Sydney journey of around four hours targeted for the 2040s. The company has already flown a ten-metre prototype called Destinus-3, which takes off and lands horizontally on a hydrogen-fed jet engine before switching to a ramjet to reach Mach 5. Neither project is close to putting passengers in seats, and experts caution that the gap between a hypersonic test vehicle and a commercially viable passenger service is enormous. The costs alone would likely limit early hypersonic travel to government, defense, or ultra-premium markets. #Hypersonic #Aviation #ESA