New Delhi, May 10 -- India's Defence Research and Development Organisation's (DRDO) Laboratory has successfully conducted a long-duration ground test of a full-scale, actively cooled scramjet combustor - a key component in the development of hypersonic cruise missiles - running the engine for over 1,200 seconds at its Scramjet Connect Pipe Test (SCPT) facility in Hyderabad on Saturday. The test marks a significant advance on a previous run of over 700 seconds conducted in January this year at the same facility. The successful 1,200-second test brings India a step closer to an operational hypersonic cruise missile - weapons capable of sustained flight at speeds exceeding Mach 5, typically over ranges of several hundred to over a thousand kilometres. The combustor was designed and developed by the DRDO lab and built in partnership with industry. Defence minister Rajnath Singh described the achievement as "a solid foundation for the nation's Hypersonic Cruise Missile Development Program" and congratulated DRDO, industry partners and academia. htc...