Superfast drone fitted with new 'rotating detonation rocket engine' approaches the speed of sound

[admin]

Engineers have successfully flown a drone at near-supersonic speeds thanks to a new type of engine that burns like a rocket and could one day lead to hypersonic Mach 9 commercial flights.

Superfast drone fitted with new 'rotating detonation rocket engine' approaches the speed of sound : Read more

 

[danr2222]

"The fuel, hydrogen peroxide..."
H2O2, solus, is a low-Isp non-starter for any future development, and even as an oxidizer with a proper fuel in a bipropellant system. They're going to have either short range or rather oversized propellant tanks --> more mass, more drag, less payload. If missiles (or any other airframes) are going to be propelled by rocketry, the high-efficiency future will be in the direction of SpaceX' high-pressure-regime methalox engines, shrunk to scale. They already operate at detonation pressures, and a thermodynamic efficiency approaching theoretical limits.

I suspect their use of peroxide is for its resistance to RDEs' notorious flameout instabilities. It's like a trick-candle that starts itself up again after you blow it out.

RDEs waste space and increase mass, filling the core with metal just for the purpose of presenting a thin annulus to sustain the revolving shock front(s). That's volume that a conventional rocket engine chamber exploits to the max to get the greatest throughput (via the injector-populated back wall) for mass ejection and velocity out the freaking nozzle.

 

[Psychronizer]

"The fuel, hydrogen peroxide..."
H2O2, solus, is a low-Isp non-starter for any future development, and even as an oxidizer with a proper fuel in a bipropellant system. They're going to have either short range or rather oversized propellant tanks --> more mass, more drag, less payload. If missiles (or any other airframes) are going to be propelled by rocketry, the high-efficiency future will be in the direction of SpaceX' high-pressure-regime methalox engines, shrunk to scale. They already operate at detonation pressures, and a thermodynamic efficiency approaching theoretical limits.

I suspect their use of peroxide is for its resistance to RDEs' notorious flameout instabilities. It's like a trick-candle that starts itself up again after you blow it out.

RDEs waste space and increase mass, filling the core with metal just for the purpose of presenting a thin annulus to sustain the revolving shock front(s). That's volume that a conventional rocket engine chamber exploits to the max to get the greatest throughput (via the injector-populated back wall) for mass ejection and velocity out the freaking nozzle.

(sigh)...I would have thought it was quite obvious that this is VERY preliminary, they've hardly even got the physics down yet, a concurrent number of rotating detonation wave-fronts hold the promise of superior efficiency because it IS a detonation, NOT a deflagration, this may surprise you, but, they actually know what they are doing. Trust me, you are a few orders of magnitude in the weeds here, to put it politely, which I'm usually not when I read stuff like this...