Travelling from Sydney to London in less than two hours is no longer a farfetched concept following a successful hypersonic test flight conducted by an international team, including University of Queensland researchers and students. 
 
 The experimental rocket, called HiFiRE 5B, hit targeted speeds of Mach 7.5 (9,200kmph) and reached a height of 278 kilometres from earth, after being launched from the Woomera Test Range in South Australia. 
 
 Image: Shutterstock 
 
 Researchers from UQ, Defence Science and Technology Group, the US Air Force Research Laboratory, Boeing and HiFiRE (Hypersoic International Flight Research Experimentation Program) were involved in the project. 
 
 Professor Michael Smart from UQ’s School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering said the flight placed the Australian aerospace industry on the international stage. 
 
 “UQ is pleased to be part of a group of highly skilled individuals doing cutting edge research,” he said. “We’re excited by the contributions this and future HIFiRE flights will make to the advancement of hypersonic flight technology.” 
 
 HiFiRE 5B is one of 10 experimental flights as part of the international collaboration which investigates the physical phenomenon of flying faster than five times the speed of sound. 
 
 “The knowledge gained from these experiments will be applied to develop future flight vehicles and testing of advanced air-breathing hypersonic propulsion engines, known as scramjets,” Professor Smart said. 
 
 Chief Defence Scientist Dr Alex Zelinsky said hypersonic flight has the potential to provide immense social and economic benefits. 
 
 “The success of this test launch takes us one step closer to the realisation of hypersonic flight,” Dr Zelinsky said. 
 
 “It is a game-changing technology identified in the 2016 Defence White Paper and could revolutionise global air travel, providing cost-effective access to space.” 
 
 The program is aimed at exploring the fundamental technologies critical to the realisation of sustained hypersonic flight. 
 
 Boeing’s chief scientist for hypersonics Kevin Bowcutt said the HiFiRE program will accelerate the development of operational hypersonic systems by producing valuable scientific flight data. 
 
 The HiFiRE team has already achieved some significant milestones such as the design, assembly and pre-flight testing of the hypersonic vehicles and the design of complex avionics and flight systems. 
 
 More test flights from Woomera are scheduled in 2017. 
 
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 The next generation of air travel just got a step closer, with the successful completion of a rocket test in the Australian desert that could one day lead to flights from London to Sydney taking as little as two hours. 
 
 The test is part of a series of ten, run by a team comprised of US and Australian military scientists. At the Woomera Testing Range, they were able to send an experimental scramjet attached to a rocket booster to an altitude of 278 kilometres with a top speed of Mach 7.5 - more than seven times the speed of sound. 
 
 That's far faster than the 'supersonic' Concorde aircraft ever achieved, and passes the threshold for 'hypersonic travel' instead - defined as travel at more than five times the speed of sound. At that speed, you could reach anywhere on the planet in a couple of hours. 
 
 Aerospace companies have been working on prototyping what a hypersonic aircraft might look like, including Lockheed Martin (pictured). 
 
 Exciting Time 
 
 The research programme, called Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation (HIFiRE), is aimed at developing an engine that can fly at Mach 7 reliably. The current speed record for a manned, powered aircraft is Mach 6.72, which was set in the 1960s by the US X-15 experimental aircraft. 
 
 "It's an exciting time... we want to be able to fly with a hypersonic engine at Mach 7," Michael Smart, a hypersonics expert involved in the programme, told AFP. 
 
 "The practical application of that is you could fly long distances over the Earth very, very quickly but also that it's very useful as an alternative to a rocket for putting satellites into space." 
 
 The group's next experiment, scheduled for 2017, will build on this success by detaching the scramjet from the rocket booster and flying it on its own. The project is expected to be complete in 2018. 
 
 "It is a game-changing technology... and could revolutionise global air travel, providing cost-effective access to space," Australia's chief scientist Alex Zelinsky said in a statement. 

 A joint US-Australian military research team is running a series of 10 trials at the world's largest land testing range, Woomera in South Australia, developing the scramjet, a supersonic combustion engine A two-hour flight from Sydney to London is a step closer to reality after the latest successful test Wednesday of hypersonic technology in the Australian desert. 
 
 A joint US-Australian military research team is running a series of 10 trials at the world's largest land testing range, Woomera in South Australia, and at Norway's Andoya Rocket Range. 
 
 "It is a game-changing technology... and could revolutionise global air travel, providing cost-effective access to space," Australia's chief scientist Alex Zelinsky said in a statement. 
 
 Scientists have said hypersonic technology could cut travelling time from Sydney to London to as little as two hours for the 17,000-kilometre (10,560-mile) flight. 
 
 Hypersonic flight involves travelling at more than five times the speed of sound (Mach 5). 
 
 Scientists involved in the programme—called Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation (HIFiRE)—are developing an engine that can fly at Mach 7, Michael Smart of the University of Queensland told AFP. 
 
 "It's an exciting time... we want to be able to fly with a hypersonic engine at Mach 7," said Smart, a hypersonics expert involved in the programme which also includes US aerospace giant Boeing and German space agency DLR. 
 
 He added that the scramjet was a supersonic combustion engine that uses oxygen from the atmosphere for combustion of its fuel, making it lighter and faster than fuel-carrying rockets. 
 
 "The practical application of that is you could fly long distances over the Earth very, very quickly but also that it's very useful as an alternative to a rocket for putting satellites into space," Smart said. 
 
 The experimental rocket in the trial on Wednesday reached an altitude of 278 kilometres and a target speed of Mach 7.5, Australia's defence department said. 
 
 Each test builds on previous ones, with the latest used to measure heat on the outside of a vehicle in hypersonic flight, Smart said. 
 
 The next test, scheduled for 2017, would involve the scramjet engine separating from the rocket booster and flying on its own, he added. 
 
 The first test was conducted in 2009 with the project expected to be completed in 2018. 
 
 Explore further: Scientists test superjet technology in Australia
– A rocket went up over the Australian desert on May 18, but this successful test launch was no ordinary feat: The experimental rocket hit a speed of Mach 7.5—or 7.5 times the speed of sound—qualifying it for "hypersonic" status, reports Gizmodo. Military scientists from the US and Australia teamed up on the project, called Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation, or HiFire. The goal, reports techradar, is to design an engine that flies at Mach 7, and Wednesday's test is one in a series that will run through 2018. "It is a game-changing technology ... and could revolutionize global air travel, providing cost-effective access to space," says chief Australian scientist Alex Zelinsky, per AFP. To put the feat in more concrete terms, the scientists say such an engine could make a trip from Sydney to London possible in a mind-boggling two hours. (Today's travelers can figure on closer to 24 hours, factoring in connecting flights.) In fact, it would make any trip in the world much more manageable and make it far easier to put satellites in space. But Popular Science also takes note of the military applications: "With that much speed, it would be impossible for an enemy [to have enough time] to move anything on the ground after radar detected [a] plane, letting it either capture pictures immediately or drop bombs almost unimpeded." The next test, in which the engine would separate from the booster rocket, is scheduled for 2017. (Also in the works: reusable rockets.)