Aerospace startup Dawn Aerospace has made major progress in its effort to create a highly reusable space plane. Its latest test flight reached transsonic speeds of Mach 0.92 and altitudes of 50,000 ft (15,000 m), three and five times better than its predecessor, respectively.
There are currently a number of companies working on projects to enter commercial supersonic or hypersonic flight, develop space planes, or generally launch small satellites into low Earth orbit. However, there is no single solution for these, and some approaches are an interesting mix of old and new.
With the final flight of its uncrewed Mk-II rocket-powered aircraft in July as part of the company’s Campaign 2-2 development program, Dawn Aerospace claims to have improved the vehicle’s performance by a factor of three to five, depending on the parameters. When Campaign 2-3 launches in September, the goal is to go supersonic for the first time, with the ultimate plan to climb faster than an F-15, reach speeds greater than an SR-71 Blackbird and become the first vehicle to fly above 100 km (62 miles) twice in a single day.
Dawn Aviation
The basic idea behind Dawn Aerospace is similar to NASA's X-15 program in the 1950s and '60s. Essentially, it's to gradually develop a space plane by starting with a more or less conventional aircraft and adding more advanced components and improving performance as part of each campaign cycle. Meanwhile, the aircraft takes off and lands from a runway like a conventional aircraft and flies in the same general way.
According to the company, Campaign 2-2 achieved its goals in three flights. Campaign 2-3 will include the Mk-IIA aircraft, which will not only fly supersonic, but will also validate the design throughout the flight envelope, anticipating the first hypersonic flights for Campaign 2-3 using the Mk-IIB; this will have 10% more thrust and 30% more total thrust than previous versions.
The ultimate goal is to create a space plane that combines the performance of a first-stage rocket with the predictability and rapid return speed of a traditional aircraft, using a rocket engine as reliable as a jet engine.
“We are seeing strong commercial traction across a broad range of users on both streams,” said Stefan Powell, CEO of Dawn Aerospace. “I expect we will be flying the first payloads to medium altitudes on the Mk-IIA before the end of this year, and much more with the Mk-IIB in 2025 and 2026. Commercial traction will help inform next vehicle development decisions.”
Source: Dawn Aerospace