As the airline industry limps into the new century with very little  innovation, the new Scramjet tested in Australia this past weekend may a glimpse into the future. Imagine getting between  the East Coast and Europe in a half hour, Australia to Japan in 2 hours. That  is the future the Scramjet is proposing. And the best part is that the engine is not fossil fuel dependent, it operates on hydrogen  and air with extreme compression.

The Hyshot craft reached speeds of 6,000 mph — Mach 8, or eight times the speed of sound — over the outback in South Australia.The craft, which was just 4 feet 6 inches long, was testing a revolutionary scramjet engine designed by Qinetiq, formerly the British government’s defense research agency. Scientists believe that the scramjet could one day be used to power super-fast intercontinental passenger planes.

“Ultimately, we hope to be able to use it to launch satellites into low-Earth orbit,” said Professor Allan Paull, of the University of Queensland’s center for hypersonics, which is working with Qinetiq. The scramjet — the name comes from Supersonic Combustion RAMjet — is among the simplest of all engines because it has no moving parts.

It works by taking in air, mixing it with hydrogen and simultaneously compressing it, generating extremely high temperatures which ignite the mixture to create a surge of jet propulsion. The only by-product is water. via FOXNews.com