Slashdot Mirror
New Jet Engine Tested
SpaceAdmiral writes "A revolutionary new jet engine has recently been tested in Australia. It is hoped that the engine, designed by UK defense firm QinetiQ and capable of Mach 7.6, will pave the way for ultra fast, intercontinental air travel. Scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) engines have no moving parts and take all of the oxygen they need (to burn hydrogen fuel) from the air, allowing for larger loads than rockets which must carry oxygen for fuel."
Scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) engines have no moving parts and take all of the oxygen they need (to burn hydrogen fuel) from the air, allowing for larger loads than rockets which must carry oxygen for fuel.
All jet engines take the oxygen they need from the air. Only rocket engines leaving the atmosphere require an onboard source of oxygen. Even the U2, which flew at > 40,000ft got it's oxygen from the surrounding air.
And the Scramjet is a jet engine, not a rocket engine. The difference you were looking for is that scramjet engines do not require a turbine to compress the surrounding air. This allows the engine to move at a much faster speed because turbine engines have an upper speed limit before the stresses pull them apart.
Also, theoretically if the compression was high enough the scramjet could burn jet fuel (kerosene) but there is probably technical difficulties with injection (ie. avoiding hot spots and detonation).
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I am the director, and this is my movie
Instead of getting people to consume more (faster) travel and burning up the ever decreasing oxygene of the atmosphere in the process, maybe the emphasis should be directed more on things like *reducing* the need for air travel? Just like instead of encouraging road travel, the opposite should be happening. Global warming, remember? Overly dependence on foreign oil etc?
Besides, when there were problems with making the Concorde profitable that flew at a mere mach 2, how in the hell is it going to be possible to create an aircraft that would be stable enough on ground level to take off and land, and still be profitable? The quantum leaps the material science has to make to meet such needs are huge.