Russia is in a fierce battle with the US to be the first country to build a ScramJet aircraft. The newly formed mega company United Aircraft Building Corporation (UABC) wants to upstage Boeing and Airbus to become the World’s premiere aircraft maker and they want their new ScramJet to be the jule in their crown.

Scramjet technology is nothing new for Russia, in November of 1991 they flew the GLL Holod ScramJet at a speed of mach 5.8, but they have let the technology langish since then because of lackof funding. However Russian President Vladimir Putin has set a new set of priorities with the establishment of the 75% state owned UABC . With plans for making the World’s fist commercial Scramjet, UABC’s supersonic marvel will be able to seat 200 passengers and fly at speeds approaching mach 8 (6000mph), carrying them from Moscow to New York in 45 minutes.

ScramJet engines are the Holy Grail of engine technology because they use no moving parts, they are brilliantly elegant and simple in design, consisting of a constricting tube through which air is compressed by the supersonic speed of the vehicle, a combustion chamber where fuel is combusted, and a nozzle through which the exhaust jet leaves at higher speed than the inlet air.

The fastest conventional air-breathing, manned vehicle, the U.S. Air Force SR-71, achieves approximately Mach 3.4 so building a civilian aircraft that can seat 100 passengers traveling at greater than mach 5 would represent one of the greatest technological leaps in history and both countries know it and so the race continues.