DARPA scramjet nudges Mach 10 | The Register

It should be noted that DARPA is late to this game. Most of the heaby lifting was done by the DSTO before the US DoD got involved.

The US has a number of FAR MOER EXPENSIVE projects in this area that have not gotten to this point.

DARPA scramjet nudges Mach 10

By Lester Haines
Published Monday 18th June 2007 09:26 GMT

Australia's Woomera Test Facility last Friday hosted the successful launch and firing of a scramjet engine which reached speeds of "up to Mach 10", the country's Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) has announced.

The HyCAUSE vehicle - a joint project between DSTO, the US's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the Australian Hypersonics Initiative (AHI)- took off atop a TALOS rocket and reached a heady 530km before firing its way to around 11,000km/h (6,800mph), according to Oz's parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Defence, Peter Lindsay.


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