Researchers advance detonation wave propulsion for hypersonic flight Researchers from the University of Central Florida and the US Naval Research Laboratory have discovered an experimental configuration and flow conditions that generate a stabilized oblique detonation—a phenomenon that has the potential to revolutionize high-speed propulsion of the future. An open-access paper on their work is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Future terrestrial and interplanetary travel will require high-speed flight and reentry in planetary atmospheres by way of robust, controllable means. This, in large part, hinges on having reliable propulsion systems for hypersonic and supersonic flight. Given the availability of fuels as propellants, we likely will rely on some form of chemical or nuclear propulsion, which means using various forms of exothermic reactions and therefore combustion waves. Such waves may be deflagrations, which are subsonic reaction waves, or detonations, which are ultrahigh-speed supersonic reaction waves. Detonations are an extremely efficient, highly energetic mode of reaction generally associated with intense blast explosions and supernovas.