The world’s first flight test for an aerospike rocket engine ended in disaster, but Polaris Aerospace is back on track, preparing to fly two new prototypes for its MIRA supersonic/hypersonic aerospike spaceplane platform within weeks.
Immediately after the MIRA I crashed upon takeoff, Polaris Spaceplanes stated it would be going forward with the MIRA II and III. True to word, Polaris has unveiled two new, yet-to-be-fully completed airframes in a recent LinkedIn post.
The MIRA II and III are identical 16.4 ft (5 m) airframes with 30% more wing area than their predecessor, the MIRA I. Polaris opted to create two identical airframes in order to speed up flight testing as well as have a “reserve” aircraft if need be. “In addition,” writes the team, “the design has been greatly improved compared to MIRA with incorporating all the lessons learnt so far.”
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