A new jet engine designed to fly seven times faster than the speed of sound seems to have been sucessfully tested. The Hyshot III, which has a scramjet engine, was launched in Australia, and scientists hope it reached speeds of up to 9,000 km per hour. Scramjets are so fast because they take oxygen to burn from the air, rather than carrying it in a heavy tank. The jet was launched on the back of another rocket, as scramjets need to be travelling

at five times the speed of sound before they start working. The scientists had just six seconds to monitor the Hyshot’s performance before the £1m jet crashed back into the ground.