Venus Aerospace, a leader in hypersonics deep-tech startups aimed at revolutionizing high-speed flight, has successfully achieved ignition of its ‘VDR2’ engine. VDR2 offers a single engine solution from Mach 0 to Mach 6. This marks the first successful Rocket-Based Combined Cycle test.
The engine architecture was unveiled in October at UP.Summit and combines the high thrust and efficiency of the Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE) with the high-efficiency cruise of a Ramjet in a technical collaboration between Venus Aerospace and Velontra.
With this successful test and ignition, Venus Aerospace has demonstrated the exceptional ability to start a Ramjet at takeoff speed, which is revolutionary. Typically, Ramjets cannot start until Mach 3.5.
Building on this milestone, Venus is now targeting a ground test of the VDR2 Block 0 flight engine. With no moving parts, this will be the simplest engine capable of going from takeoff to Mach 4+, and will take flight in Venus’ flight test drone in 2025.
Venus was founded in 2020 and has successfully matured the RDRE from concept to a 2,000 lbf demonstration flight engine. RDREs achieve supersonic combustion (also known as detonation) which results in a higher efficiency engine by adding pressure in the combustion process, not just heat.
In parallel, Venus developed and flew a supersonic-capable drone in February 2024. The first flight of an RDRE drone is scheduled for Q1 2025.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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Your comment about “Ramjets cannot start below Mach 3.5” is absolutely wrong. Here is a WWII photo of an Opel Blitz truck with a Ramjet operating on the top: https://www.reddit.com/r/WW2GermanMilitaryTech/comments/x6lsf6/an_opel_blitz_truck_used_to_test_experimental/
The Boeing CIM-10 Bomarc missile had 2 ramjet sustainers and cruised at Mach 2.5, well below your stated Mach 3.5.
Ramjets can operate subsonically but they aren’t very efficient at those slow speeds. They do not work at zero forward speed because they need some compression from forward motion.
Too bad they had the music playing over the engine test video. I don’t want to hear your stupid video I want to hear the thing’s earsplitting scream.
This technology – RDE’s in general and RDE ramjet’s in particular will make space-plane’s viable. They only appear to have technical engineering problems, not impossible-physics problems … I wonder if SpaceX engine group is working on such engines in the background. If they aren’t SpaceX is risking being leap-frogged.
Using a combo of ramjet RDE’s and regular rocket RDE’s or a combined (mixed-cycle) RDE, space plane’s will be far far more cost effective at payload to orbit in theory.
I don’t see anything in the way of that theory either – it’s all just engineering now.