Dawn Aerospace’s rocket-plane completes latest phase of test flights
August 8, 2024
Dawn Aerospace’s rocket-powered Mk-II Aurora aircraft completed its latest flight test campaign in late July. The aircraft reached a maximum speed of Mach 0.92 and an altitude of 50,000 feet. The Aurora is scheduled to reach supersonic speeds during its next flight campaign, scheduled for mid-September.
The Mk-II Aurora is a development aircraft, and the next supersonic iteration is designated as the Mk-IIB.
The company said that: “By the end of 2025, we’re looking to climb faster than an F-15, fly higher than a MiG-25, faster than an SR-71, and, ultimately, be the first vehicle to fly above the Kármán line; 100km altitude (the generally accepted definition of ‘space’), twice in a single day. Some of these records have stood for over 50 years.”
The Mk-IIB will pave the way for a two-stage-to-orbit aircraft called the Aurora Mk-III.
The company sees two main revenue opportunities for its aircraft. The first is for a variant optimized for payload capacity, and used for remote sensing, Earth observation, and atmospheric research. The second will use a variant optimized for high-speed atmospheric flight, and aimed at hypersonic testing, point-to-point transportation and microgravity research.
The company generates some revenue from small satellite propulsion systems, but hopes to achieve its goals while spending less than comparable spaceplane, hypersonic aircraft, or traditional vertically-launched rocket programmes. Dawn has raised some $15 million in funding and has spent relatively about $10 million on the flight test programme, aiming to complete it for less than $20 million.
Company co-founder and CFO, James Powell comes from an aerospace background, and said that: “All of our development to date has really been about just developing this muscle of being able to learn quickly and apply this ‘it’s an aircraft with the performance of a rocket, not a rocket with wings’ mentality, because that allows just such a fundamentally better way to operate.”
“I think common knowledge is that spaceplanes have been tried with the Shuttle, and that didn’t work, and it’s a dumb idea. And if not that then, things with wings are stupid because, look at Virgin Orbit, that didn’t work. Air launch is dumb. You have to get to quite a nuanced conversation before you actually understand the difference between what we’re trying to do and the rockets with wings that have flown before us, and how the path we’re on is very much an aircraft path, but there is still a path to making it have the performance of a rocket.”
