Hypersonic

More than 20 years after the last commercial Concorde flight, President Trump has signed an executive order to repeal the ban on supersonic flight over land across the US. That paves the way for companies building the ultra-fast planes of the future.

Hermeus seems dead keen on fast-tracking its way to hypersonic passenger flight. Its uncrewed subsonic Quarterhorse Mark 1 prototype has completed its maiden flight in the skies over Edwards Air Force Base in California on May 21, 2025.

In what may be a world first, Venus Aerospace has, for the first time in the US, successfully flown a Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE) that uses supersonic explosions to create thrust. Such engines could help propel future hypersonic vehicles.

Looking like something out of Minecraft, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force has released a new image of its latest electromagnetic railgun being developed by the Acquisition, Technology, & Logistics Agency (ATLA) to counter hypersonic missiles.

Britain's Ministry of Defence, with the help of the United States, has achieved what is being billed as a major hypersonic propulsion test of a new engine design that could power a cutting-edge hypersonic cruise missile for UK armed forces by 2030.

In a major defense milestone, the US Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Pinckney (DDG-91) has successfully completed a simulated engagement with a live hypersonic missile in the waters off the Hawaiian Islands.

The US Army and Navy have successfully flown its Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon system in an end-to-end test at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida with the Battery Operations Center and a Transporter Erector Launcher that it will use in the field.

A self-propagating series of explosions, contained between the blades of a high-speed rotor, promises a leap in power and efficiency during hypersonic flight – provided this radical new engine can be built strong enough to withstand its own power.

A major player in aerospace innovation has bitten the dust. Reaction Engines, a developer of hypersonic engine technology since 1989, has gone into administration and its closure is having an impact on the hypersonic weapons program of Britain and others.

When is an empty tube not an empty tube? When it's a ramjet that uses rotating detonation technology to propel aircraft at hypersonic speeds. A case in point is Venus Aerospace's new Venus Detonation Ramjet 2000 lb Thrust Engine (VDR2).

Aerospace startup Dawn Aerospace has made a major advance in its push to create a highly reusable spaceplane. The latest test flight reached transonic speeds of Mach 0.92 and an altitude of 50,000 ft (15,000 m), or 3 times and 5 times, respectively, better than before.

Lockheed Martin has released more details about its Mako hypersonic missile that the company is building for the US Air Force and international customers. The multi-mission missile that flies at Mach 5+ can be launched from a wide variety of aircraft.