With the race to replace internal combustion engines with electric vehicles heating up, the question of where this new production will come from is the pressing issue for the industry. Will it be new facilities or the conversion of existing plants? Ford appears to be doing both, with a major conversion of the existing facilities and the announcement of two very large new operations, an assembly plant in Tennessee and a joint venture with SK Innovation for battery production in Kentucky.

Sustained hypersonic flight has been a hot topic of research in aerospace for decades, and hot on the heels of recent Chinese advancements in scramjet technology, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman have announced the successful test of an air breathing hypersonic missile built for the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency. While current scramjet technology is suitable only for short duration use in weapons, similar technologies are under development that could be scaled to allow true single-stage to orbit performance with hybrid engines.

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