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 kil...