CNH said:Europe to Australia in 5 hours? ROFL. Who wants to go to Australia any way? [Maybe some would like to come back ...] Seriously, there are what ... 20 million people in Oz? Not exactly a mass market.
As for Mach 5 and the rest - has no one learned anything from Concorde? Supersonic flight over land is a big no no.
CNH said:Europe to Australia in 5 hours? ROFL. Who wants to go to Australia any way? [Maybe some would like to come back ...] Seriously, there are what ... 20 million people in Oz? Not exactly a mass market.
As for Mach 5 and the rest - has no one learned anything from Concorde? Supersonic flight over land is a big no no.
Matej said:I had a looong talk with the Reaction Engines representatives, a very usefull one, so when I will have some free time to spare, I will write some extract of it.
Matej said:Matej said:I had a looong talk with the Reaction Engines representatives, a very usefull one, so when I will have some free time to spare, I will write some extract of it.
I think its about time...
So, my first impression is that they perfectly know, what they are doing. I was not overwhelmed by the megalomaniac plans to conquer the universe. They have a very clean, simple and realistic point-to-point strategy, mostly related to the propulsion system. Regarding the vehicle - for now its just the preferred concept without solved details.
When speaking about the engine, they used already developed and proved technologies and they even did some work on joining and testing them together as one connected system. There was only one unproved technology left - precooling system. In the mid 2010 they were preparing to test this last piece of puzzle and as FutureSpaceTourist pointed out, they are going to launch those tests this summer. The point-to-point strategy gave them the advantage to be able to request the funds not for the all-new complex, complicated and expensive engine, but rather to the separate technologies, that can have also other applications, not only in the SABRE engine. It means, that even if the Skylon will never be realized, they will be usefull in the other industry areas. What I found very interesting is that they were able to collect (thanks to that kind of strategy) relatively a lot of money. They started with the specific studies/analysis with the costs of hundreds of thousands Eur, then they were working with the millions and now they collected tens of millions in funds. That is impressive. So when they claim that there are the investors ready to spent 350M USD after the successfull precooler test, it is not a surprise for me. Honestly, if I be the investor, I would really consider to give them some money for the engine technology development.
Another story is the vehicle. Because they are concentrating almost all the efforts to the propulsion, vehicle is now in its concept stage. They made the preliminary work on the aerodynamics and some subsystems, but it seemed to me that they didn't figure out some of the important details. The thermal protection system is one of the examples - I surprised them a bit with that question. They said that they can use some sort of the modern ceramic tiles, but when I argue by the complexity, expense and the different size/shape of almost all of the tiles on the Space Shuttle, I didn't receive any good answer. It means for me that there is still the probability, that the design of the vehicle can change, as they start the detailed work on it in the next phase. I also couldn't resist to use the Scott's note that it would snap in half on reentry. They answered in detail and generally it was about the argument, that the vehicle will have the very low weight during the reentry compared to the takeoff and also it will have very provident trajectory.
To summarize it, they absolutely convinced me that the SABRE engine is the right thing to do and I am sure it can be realized. Regarding the Skylon vehicle, well, it belongs to the group of the much realistic European vehicles, however I am carefull in this case. If it ever became reality, we are talking about beyond 2025 timeframe.
Archibald said:If they obtain a workable engine, fine. I just hope that workable engine can then find its way on a workable spaceplane.
Nik said:BBC TV teletext news reported this morning that ESA technical review of Reaction Engine's Skylon & Sabre gave them a clean bill, "without show-stoppers". Next phase is to be ground-testing of a jet engine with pre-cooler.
;D
UK Skylon spaceplane passes key review
A revolutionary UK spaceplane concept is boosted by the conclusions of an important technical review that finds no obvious flaws in its design.www.bbc.co.uk
martinbayer said:ESA assessment report is available here: http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/bispartners/ukspaceagency/docs/skylon-assessment-report-pub.pdf
Martin
Commencement of Pre-cooler Heat Exchanger Testing Process
The testing process for the pre-cooler heat exchanger technology began this month. Over the past few months, the B9 test site has been stripped down and the dummy pre-cooler has been removed and placed in storage. The Viper jet engine has been refurbished in preparation for the testing.
The pipe runs for both the helium loop and N2 supply have been tested. The helium loop instrumentation and control for the operation of the valves are also in place.
mz said:I'm still not convinced it would be cheaper to develop or operate than a two stage reusable rocket.
Nik said:No news since ~ May 11 2011
http://www.reactionengines.co.uk/index.html
However, the page on the heat-exchanger says 'during 2011'...
I'd hope everything worked so well that they went back and triple-checked, to be sure, to be sure...
]Key tests for spaceplane project
UK engineers begin critical tests on the innovative Sabre engine technology that is designed to take a spaceplane into orbit in a single flight stage.www.bbc.co.uk
[...]
Reaction Engines Limited (REL) believes the test campaign will prove the readiness of Sabre's key elements.
This being so, the firm would then approach investors to raise the £250m needed to take the project into the final design phase.
"We intend to go to the Farnborough International Air Show in July with a clear message," explained REL managing director Alan Bond.
"The message is that Britain has the next step beyond the jet engine; that we can reduce the world to four hours - the maximum time it would take to go anywhere. And that it also gives us aircraft that can go into space, replacing all the expendable rockets we use today."
[...]
hole in the ground said:[OT}narrated by bryan blessed?![/OT]
Harrier said:UK government supporting SABRE engine development:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/jul/16/60m-space-rocket-engine