Rocket plane blasts through sound barrier on route to hypersonic flight 

Dawn Aerospace has flown its rocket-powered aircraft past the speed of sound, the latest milestone on its path to its first commercial flights.

During the test, which took place on New Zealand’s South Island, the startup’s Mk-II Aurora aircraft reached Mach 1.1 and an altitude of 25 kilometres. Dawn said this marks the first time a civil aircraft has flown supersonic since Concorde. 

The feat comes after Aurora hit Mach 0.92 in August, which, at the time, was three times the speed and five times the height of its previous test conducted in 2023. Dawn’s aircraft just keeps on getting faster. The end goal is to go hypersonic (6,173–12,348 km/h) and fly over 100 km above the Earth — twice in one day.  

“As a company, we have been working for more than seven years to design, develop, test, and deliver supersonic flight. We are now achieving this and will start commercial payload operations in the coming months,” said Stefan Powell, CEO of Dawn Aerospace.

The company, headquartered in the Netherlands and New Zealand, claims that during the test last week the Aurora also broke the world record for the fastest aircraft to climb from ground level to 20 km. The spaceplane made the ascent in just 118.6 seconds, beating the previous record set in the 1970s by a highly modified F-15 fighter jet. 

“This milestone sets the stage for Aurora to become the world’s highest and fastest-flying aircraft and paves the way for the first operational hypersonic aircraft, redefining what’s possible in aviation,” said Powell.

Cheaper access to space

Kiwi Stefan Powell and his brother James founded Dawn Aerospace in 2016 alongside Dutchman Jeroen Wink, and the two Germans Tobias Knop and Robert Werner. The team hopes to unlock cheaper, quicker access to space for applications such as microgravity research, atmospheric science, Earth observation, and testing high-speed flight.  

Dawn has spent just $10mn on its flight programme to date and looks to complete it using just $20mn — pennies for an aerospace company. One can assume that these low production costs will also translate into cheap flights for customers.  

Dawn’s lean approach to tech development stands out in an industry dominated by billionaire-funded startups and deep-pocketed governments. The company generates some additional revenue from its other business line, which builds low emissions propulsions systems for satellites. Nevertheless, it’s looking to do something quite remarkable given its limited cash runway.   

The startup’s ultimate vision is to build an orbital stage aircraft, dubbed Mk-III, that could transport satellites into low-Earth orbit, putting it in direct competition with Elon Musk’s SpaceX.