Venus Aerospace is developing a hypersonic aircraft called Stargazer that could fly passengers from Los Angeles to Tokyo in about an hour. Designed to reach speeds of up to Mach 9 and cruise at 170,000 feet, the plane would travel high enough for passengers to see the curve of the Earth.
The aircraft will take off using standard jet engines, then switch to rocket propulsion as it climbs. At the core of its design is a rotating-detonation engineβaimed at delivering greater fuel efficiency than conventional systems.
Backed by $33M in funding, the company plans to begin testing with a smaller-scale drone before moving forward with a full-size version.