An data-based drone has blast off on its near - supersonic stop number test flight , zipping through the sky at speeds of Mach 0.9 – that ’s 1,111 klick ( 690 miles ) per hour .

This is just the beginning of thing , though . Venus Aerospace , the ship’s company that developed the droning , ultimately wants to reach velocity of Mach 9 , nine times the speed of strait .

On February 24 , the 2.4 - cadence ( 8 - ft ) long missile - shaped drone was come up to an EL of 3,657 metre ( 12,000 metrical foot ) onboard an aircraft . Upon freeing , the poke fired up its hydrogen peroxide monopropellant engine at 80 percent thrusting so as not to outstrip Mach 1 , then traveled for 16 km ( 10 miles ) .

“ Using an breeze - launched political platform and a garden rocket - with - fender contour allows us to cheaply and quickly get to the minimal executable test of our RDRE as a hypersonic locomotive . The squad executed with professionalism and has a wealth of data to anchor and tweak for the next flight , ” Andrew Duggleby , the CTO & Co - Founder of Venus Aerospace , said in astatement .

free-base in Houston , Texas , Venus Aerospace is a startup aerospace company that hopes to pave the way toward hypersonic flight of stairs ( speeds of Mach 5 and above ) .

The previous trial flight was one little part of testing for their Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine ( RDRE ) , which isbeing developedin partnership with DARPA ( Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ) , the US State Department ’s research means that ’s behind all kind ofweird and wonderful technologies .

“ Up next is RDRE flight , and ultimately hypersonic flight , proving that the RDRE is the railway locomotive that unlocks the hypersonic economy , ” explained Sarah “ Sassie ” Duggleby , CEO & Co - Founder of the caller .

As mentioned , their end destination is to make a fomite that can cruise at Mach 9 speeding , around 11,000 kilometers ( 6,835 miles ) per hour .

This is an unbelievably fast speed . To appointment , the speediest aeroplane ever flown by a human is the NASA / USAF X-15 . In 1967 , fender Pete Knight used this jet-propelled plane toreach an eye - lacrimation speedof Mach 6.7 , around 7,274 kilometers ( 4,520 mile ) per hour .

Concorde , the ill - fatedsupersonic commercial message planethat flew paid passengers until 2003 , traveled at a relatively sluggish Mach 2 , around 2,179 kilometres ( 1,354 miles ) per hour .

Crazier still , Venus Aerospacewants to put passengerson these Mach 9 flights . There ’s still a huge amount of work before this pipage dreaming becomes reality , but Venus Aerospace believes it ’s make solid progress .

“ This is how you do hard thing : one bit at a clock time , ” say Sarah Duggleby .