The “revolutionary” air-breathing engine could, in theory, lift an aircraft from a runway to more than 30km (18.6 miles) into the stratosphere and continuously accelerate it to 16 times the speed of sound.
At this velocity, even the longest intercontinental flights could take just one or two hours while consuming less fuel compared with conventional jet engines.
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If that engine actually works, it would be cool to see it on a space plane. Mach 16 is nearly 2/3rds of orbital velocity. If you could go that fast on an air breathing engine, you wouldn’t need to carry nearly as much oxygen to get into LEO.