The US shows a spaceplane of the future capable of flying 18 000 kilometers

The developers of Aura Aerospace have presented the concept of the Ranger intercontinental hybrid aircraft, which can fly 18,000 kilometers in 22 hours. Given that the length of the Earth’s equator is 40 076 kilometers, the Aura Aerospace aircraft can fly almost halfway around the world without refueling.

Online, users compare the five-seater Ranger to Darth Vader’s shuttle from Star Wars. According to the developers, as soon as the aircraft takes off, its wings unfold to a full 23 meters wide, after which a pair of turbofan jet engines are activated to provide thrust. With future upgrades, the Ranger will be able to accelerate to a cruising speed of 820 km/h, flying at an altitude of up to 3000 meters.

The Aura Aerospace development can land and take off from runways. The five-seater vehicle has a small kitchen and toilet for comfortable long-distance travel.

In addition to creating spaceplanes, scientists are working to improve data transmission. A few days ago, it became known that MIT specialists set an absolute world record for the speed of data transmission from space to Earth. The TBIRD equipment, the size of a shoebox, transmitted information from space at a speed of 100 Gbps. While the maximum data transfer rate of Starlink is 500 Mbps.

As the scientists explained, Starlink satellite Internet communicates with a ground station via a radio channel for data transmission, and the TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) system uses a laser beam for this purpose. Due to its higher frequency, the laser beam can transmit more data per unit of time.