Isegoria

Venus Aerospace has successfully launched a rocket from the ground using its air-breathing rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE):

Venus Aerospace’s goal is to develop the Stargazer M4, a commercial aircraft capable of cruising at Mach 4 and reaching Mach 9 at its peak speed.

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The test took place at Spaceport America near the White Sands missile range in New Mexico. The rocket, which looked more like a missile or small rocket than a conventional plane, was launched vertically from a ramp.

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At its core, this engine is a ramjet, which is essentially a tube without any moving parts. Normally, because there’s no turbine to compress incoming air, the ramjet needs to reach a high speed in order to build enough air pressure for combustion to begin and propulsion to occur.

Typically, ramjets are not effective at subsonic speeds. To get them started, they either need to be dropped from a high-speed aircraft or use a rocket motor to achieve the required speed. This makes it impossible to take off from the ground using just a ramjet.

Venus Aerospace overcame this challenge by adding a key element that generates the necessary air pressure to start the combustion process right from the ground. This element is the rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE). Despite its name, the RDRE has no moving parts. It’s essentially a tube inside another tube, and the “rotation” comes from the detonation produced by the combustion of fuel and oxidizer. This creates a supersonic wave that spins around the axis, generating massive pressure to power the ramjet.

Once the speed reaches Mach 3.5, the RDRE shuts off, and the ramjet takes over propulsion, enabling hypersonic speeds. This system also improves fuel efficiency, reducing consumption by 20% compared to conventional engines.

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The company has confirmed that the system works and plans to integrate the VDR2 into a drone demonstrator later this year.

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