Spaceplane Concept Receives Euro Funding

draevil writes "BBC News reports that the novel "Skylon" spaceplane design of British firm Reaction Engines has received funding to proceed with its proof-of-concept design for an air-breathing rocket engine. If successful, the Sabre rocket engine will be able to take the Skylon with 12 tonnes of cargo from a runway, to orbit and then back to that runway without the need for disposable components or a piggy-back ride on a larger aircraft. Should the design prove viable, it could see first use within ten years."

Comments

This is REALLY, REALLY stupid.

[Jane Q. Public]

First of all, there is no such thing as an "air-breathing rocket engine"!!!

BY DEFINITION a "rocket engine" carries its own oxidizer!!

Something that "breathes" air is a "JET engine"!!!

Jesus Christ! Who thought this shit up? Obviously, somebody who does not even know the difference between a rocket and a jet! And somebody else, just as clueless, is going to fund them to try make a spaceship?

HOW DO I GET IN ON THIS DEAL??? I WANT TO KNOW. I have an inertial drive I can sell them, cheap. Only a couple of billion.

Okay. So in TFA, they later make it clear that this is a hybrid engine. But I am NOT nitpicking. That does not absolve them of guilt. It is still not an "air-breathing rocket engine". It is a hybrid: a jet part of the way, a rocket part of the way. They STILL are not the same things. It is not an "air-breathing rocket engine" any more than a hybrid automobile is an "electricity-eating gasoline engine". They are two different things, doing their different things at completely different times, in different ways.

Somebody teach this journalist something about science.

Re:They are going to a lot of trouble....

[Hurricane78]

And all this, just to kill people. Wow. How far have we come... </sarcasm>