New Delhi, September 7: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday lauded the efforts of the scientists at Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and congratulated them for the successful flight of Hypersonic Test Demonstration Vehicle (HSTDV). Taking to Twitter, the Prime Minister said the scramjet engine developed by the DRDO scientists helped the flight achieve a speed 6 times the speed of sound. With the HSTDV test-flight today, India became the fourth country in the world after the US, China and Russia to develop and test the technology.

"Congratulations to @DRDO_India for successful flight of the Hypersonic Test Demonstration Vehicle today. The scramjet engine developed by our scientists helped the flight achieve a speed 6 times the speed of sound! Very few countries have such capability today", the Prime Minister tweeted.  Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle Successfully Flight-Tested in India (Watch Video).

Here's the tweet by PM Narendra Modi:

The DRDO described the achievement as a historic one. "In a historic mission today, India successfully flight tested Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV), a giant leap in indigenous defence technologies and significant milestone towards a Sashaktbharat and Atmanirbharbharat", it tweeted.

Here's the tweet by DRDO:

On Monday, India successfully flight tested the indigenously-developed HSTDV that is expected to power futuristic long-range missile systems and aerial platforms. The HSTDV, based on hypersonic propulsion technologies, has been developed by the DRDO, officials said. The Hypersonic Test Demonstration Vehicle powers cruise missiles and operates on scramjet engines which can attain the speed of around Mach 6 which is far better than ramjet engines.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 07, 2020 08:24 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).