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Last Update: Monday, January 8, 2007. 8:00pm (AEDT) Boeing joins UQ scramjet project The Boeing aviation company has teamed up with scientists from the University of Queensland to further develop their scramjet rocket technology. The supersonic engine is capable of speeds up to 8,000 kilometres-an-hour, and could cut flight times between Australia and the UK to just a few hours. The UQ Centre for Hypersonics was the first in the world to achieve verified supersonic combustion of a scramjet in flight. Dr Kevin Bowcutt from the joint US and Australian research program says scramjet space visits may only be 15 years away, but the priority is to reduce international flight times. "Well that's my dream and my goal, that one day we'll be able to travel between say Los Angeles and Brisbane in two hours and to go into space routinely and affordably," he said. "Today [space travel costs], depending on the rocket you use, $3,000 to $5,000 per pound of payload that you're taking into space. "A goal that I have is to try to figure out how to make it cost $100 or $200 per pound to go into space." Print-friendy versionPrint Send to a friendEmail