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

1 Skylon ~ 12 tonnes ~ 2 (two) Sabre engines

[djupedal]

>"...the Sabre rocket engine will be able to take the Skylon with 12 tonnes of cargo..."

That should read "two Sabre rocket engines will be able to take a Skylon with 12 tonnes of cargo..."

That is 13.225 US Short Tons...or approximately 6 tons per engine, if the illustration is any indication.

Not much money for a space plane. But good luck Al

[physburn]

Alan Bond has been trying to fund an air breathing space plane since the mid 80s and the HOTOL project. This grant he's just got will allow the research to go on and a few rocket engineering PhD at a couple of UK universities, but its nowhere near the funding needed to build a real space plane. With luck though the technology might grow on, and end up in some space plane for the 2020s.

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

[Anonymous Coward]

It does work on the ground. It is not a scramjet. It is a hybrid between a jet engine and a rocket engine. It uses a jet style rotary compressor. The big innovation appears to be very fine control of the liquid hydrogen injectors into the combustion chamber allowing pressurised but gaseous air to be used instead of the liquefied air/oxygen that all previous rocket designs have needed.

Re:Whole ./ lead-in is a crock...

[StevePole]

The engine is air breathing up to mach 5.5, it can do this because of a) it's novel pre-cooler design, and b) because unlike other air breathing designs, it doesn't liquefy the oxygen before using it as fuel, it 'merely' takes it to it's vapour point.

After mach 5.5 it operates as a relatively standard rocket engine up to orbital velocity (~mach 25) but by that point it's high enough that it doesn't have to fight through the thick air near the earth's surface so saves a lot of fuel. This increases the percentage of launch weight that can be used for payload.

Re:Guaranteed 100% Vapourware

[WolfWithoutAClause]

You're wrong about the engines, the engines are actively cooled at the inlet- they see ground level conditions throughout the flight.

You're also wrong about nitrogen, nitrogen is perfectly good reaction mass up to about Mach 5. Beyond that it tends to come apart. Guess what speed Skylon calls it quits and turns on the rockets?

The other point you're missing is that at low speeds rockets are horribly inefficient; the exhaust velocity is much too high. By using the nitrogen as reaction mass; powered by the hydrogen fuel reacting with atmospheric oxygen Skylon can reduce the exhaust velocity and get massively better efficiency. That means it needs a lot less propellant, and then when it does turn on the rockets, it has performance in hand. The design has twice the payload fraction of a rocket design because of that.