McCullough Robertson has advised on the assembly of an A$14m international consortium to fuel the University of Queensland's (UQ's) scramjet rocket research.

Seen as potentially opening up space travel for tourism, scramjets are air-breathing engines capable of travelling at hypersonic speeds greater than Mach 5. The UQ-led consortium plans to test scramjet concepts at record speeds of more than 17,000 kilometres per hour.

McCullough Robertson IP partner David Downie said that the transaction, which spanned international contracts and IP law, required "tough negotiations at odd hours of the day and night". The international consortium will contribute A$9 million of funding following an initial A$5m grant from the Australian Space Research Program.