NEW DELHI: The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Friday achieved a “significant milestone” by conducting scramjet combustor ground testing for more than 1,000 seconds.
It conducted “long-duration active cooled scramjet subscale combustor ground testing for more than 1,000 seconds at the newly built state-of-the-art Scramjet Connect Test Facility at Hyderabad”, the defence ministry said in a statement.
“With the successful test, the system will be soon ready for full scale flight worthy combustor testing,” it said.
According to the ministry’s statement, such propulsion systems, which enable supersonic combustion, are essential for maintaining high-speed, long-duration cruise conditions.
“This test validates the design of long duration scramjet combustor as well as test facility. It is an outcome of an integrated effort put by the DRDO labs along with industry and academia and paves a strong base for the nation’s Hypersonic Cruise Missile Development Programme,” it said.
The recent ground test follows an earlier one conducted in January, which lasted 120 seconds. At the time, the ministry had announced that DRDL had successfully developed and demonstrated advanced technologies, including an actively cooled scramjet combustor, marking the first such ground test of its kind in India.
A hypersonic cruise missile is a type of weapon capable of sustained flight at speeds exceeding Mach 5—over 6,100 kmph—using an air-breathing engine for propulsion.