File photo. Mk-II Aurora, Dawn Aerospace's unmanned rocket-powered space plane, tests its jet while on a runway in June 2024. Photo: Supplied/Dawn Aerospace
A Christchurch company's developmental aircraft has gone supersonic.
Dawn Aerospace's aircraft, Aurora, broke the sound barrier on a remotely piloted flight last week from the Glentanner Aerodrome near the base of Aoraki Mount Cook.
The flight broke the record for the fastest and highest flight from New Zealand, when it reached a speed of Mach 1.1 at an altitude of 25km (82,500 feet).
The flight also set a global record, becoming the fastest aircraft to climb from ground level to 20km (66,000 feet), completing the ascent in 118.6 seconds.
In August the company said it had had initial talks with the United States military and NASA about using its rocket-powered space plane.
Christchurch company's aircraft breaks the sound barrier
Dawn Aerospace chief executive Stefan Powell told Morning Report it had taken the company five years of work to get to this point.
"It's certainly not easy. The real difference is this is not a rocket, it's an aircraft in every sense, so you have to go through a very strict regulatory process.
"It's very challenging, but once you get there it means you can fly multiple times a day."
Powell said that there had been three separate test campaigns in the last three months where the aircraft has increased from relatively moderate speeds and altitudes.
"We've built up progressively. Every flight we go up we fly higher, we fly faster."
As for the record-breaking flight, Powell said the Aurora went up twice as high as a commercial aircraft, right to the edge of the atmosphere.
"If you go much further there isn't any air. You can't practically fly a plane anymore.
"It's sort of a hybrid between a rocket and an aircraft. Because it has a rocket engine, we can actually fly up above the atmosphere.
"We can fly higher than a balloon, but lower than a satellite. Which means there's all kinds of regions of the atmosphere that we can access."
By getting into this zone, Powell said it is very interesting for atmospheric science and micro-gravity science.
Powell highlighted the company's ultimate goal is to go to space twice in a day.