Sep 11, 2024
World’s first aerospike aircraft to fly this month after crash setback
Posted by Genevieve Klien in category: space travel
The world’s first flight test for an aerospike rocket engine ended in disaster, but Polaris Aerospace is back on track, preparing to fly two new prototypes for its MIRA supersonic/hypersonic aerospike spaceplane platform within weeks.
Immediately after the MIRA I crashed upon takeoff, Polaris Spaceplanes stated it would be going forward with the MIRA II and III. True to word, Polaris has unveiled two new, yet-to-be-fully completed airframes in a recent LinkedIn post.
The MIRA II and III are identical 16.4 ft (5 m) airframes with 30% more wing area than their predecessor, the MIRA I. Polaris opted to create two identical airframes in order to speed up flight testing as well as have a “reserve” aircraft if need be. “In addition,” writes the team, “the design has been greatly improved compared to MIRA with incorporating all the lessons learnt so far.”