A rocket-propelled aircraft developed by New Zealand’s Dawn Aerospace (DA) has completed a series of flights as the company looks to undergo supersonic testing next month.

The Mk-II Aurora suborbital spaceplane was originally unveiled in July 2020 and is capable of flying up to an altitude of more than 100km several times a day. It can also take off and land at standard airports alongside normal aircraft. The aircraft is able to access parts of the Earth’s atmosphere that are too high for regular aircraft or balloons to operate and too low for satellites.

Three flight tests were carried out in late July in which the DA team achieved a maximum speed and altitude of Mach 0.92 (967 km/h) and 50,000ft (15.1km). This represents three times and five times, respectively, what the firm had achieved in its previous efforts. As a point of comparison, most commercial airliners fly anywhere from about 31,000 feet to 42,000 feet.

DA has committed to further flight testing of the Mk-II Aurora and hopes...