Venus Aerospace promises to take customers from San Francisco to Tokyo in just one hour.

A US startup called Venus Aerospace has ventured into developing the world’s first hypersonic and reusable passenger plane. Based on Houston, Texas, Venus Aerospace wants its future Stargazer to take customers from San Francisco to Tokyo, or from Houston to London in just one hour. 

The company says its rocket-powered aircraft will be capable of flying at a maximum altitude of 52 kilometers and speeding as fast as Mach 9 (9,559-11,132 km/h).

For comparison, the Concorde supersonic airliner could travel as fast as Mach 2 or about 2,100 km/h.

Boom Supersonic, another American startup in the aviation industry, builds planes for a cruising speed of Mach 1,7. The speed of sound is 1,235 km/h. The fastest manned aircraft was Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, which was capable of Mach 3 and could carry only two pilots.

Stargazer, say the company’s founders Sassie and Andrew Duggleby – wife and husband, will be able to ferry a dozen passengers plus crew.

While not disclosing many details about the engine, they said it employs an experimental form of propulsion which is used in the rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE). Unlike a conventional rocket engine, which generates thrust through the combustion of propellant and an oxidizer burning inside a chamber, the RDRE creates a continuing series of controlled detonations around a circular, or annular, channel, generating 15% more thrust with less fuel.

The RDRE design is gaining popularity these days and many space agencies, including NASA, seek to adopt this technology.

Before founding Venus Aerospace, CEO Sassie Duggleby was the launch systems engineering and mission management consultant at Virgin Orbit, where she also developed and tested launch software and telemetry systems.

The other co-founder, CTO Andrew Duggleby, is a U.S. Lieutenant Commander and an engineering professor. Before launching Venus, he was head of launch operations at Virgin Orbit where he led operational planning, mission control, telemetry, ground equipment, launch infrastructure, and payload operations teams.

Virgin Orbit was considering to file for bankruptcy.