News from all over - Woomera

The age of faster-than-sound commercial travel took a step back from the grave when Japan used a rocket to test fly a scale model of a proposed supersonic jetliner from this rocket range, in South Australia's outback.

Supersonic flight for fare-paying passengers was buried in 2003 when Concorde, crippled by failing economics and a crash in July 2000 that killed 113 people, was withdrawn from service.

However, Japan is developing technology that could lead to passengers again breaking the sound barrier, but in a much more efficient and quieter aircraft. Shaped like an arrowhead, the 104-metre-long plane would carry 300 passengers, three times as many as Concorde, at twice the speed of sound. This could reduce the flight time from Sydney to Los Angeles to as little as six hours (from a current average of 13 hours 30 minutes).

To check the aerodynamics of the arrowhead shape, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency strapped an 11.5-metre model to the side of a rocket and fired it into Woomera's sky. About 19 kilometres up, the rocket hit twice the speed of sound, the cruising speed of the proposed jetliner. The model, dubbed NEXT-1 - the National Experimental Supersonic Transport - was then released to test its aerodynamic characteristics.

The computer-controlled craft glided almost 100 kilometres before steering itself back towards Woomera, performing a series of turns to lose speed "just like the space shuttle does".

Finally, after a flight lasting 15 minutes and 22 seconds, it parachuted back onto the desert. It touched down about 15 kilometres from the launch site, its landing cushioned by an airbag. The aircraft's shape was selected to increase efficiency and reduce sonic booms.

The Japanese jetliner is not expected to be flying for another "15 or 20 years".