Super Plane Skylon: It gets anywhere on Earth in 4 hours (photo, graphics and video)
British scientists have successfully tested a new type of engine, which will be installed on a revolutionary airplane called Skylon that is able to reach any point on Earth in no more than four hours, but to fly also into space, according to dailymail.co.uk (scroll down for video and photos).
Skylon, a real challenge for space transport
Skylon can take off and land from any conventional runway and is designed to fly at an altitude of 29,000 meters at a speed exceeding five times that of the sound. The new type of aircraft is produced by British company Reaction Engines Limited (REL) which has its headquarters in the city of Culham in Oxfordshire County and will be powered by a Sabre engine – a hybrid that is able to function both as a propulsion jet engine and as a rocket engine which takes the vehicle into orbit. British manufacturers are now rushing to carry out a series of critical tests because they want to submit the draft of the novel aircraft at the next Aeronautical Farnborough International Fair which will take place in July 2012.
Video: Hypersonic spacecraft Skylon – Space Plane Operations
The representatives of Reaction Engines Limited company which is specialized in designing and manufacturing revolutionary engines, are hoping to obtain encouraging results following their tests, thus being able to address to the investors in order to raise the amount of 250 million pounds needed for the new aircraft to enter its final stage of production.
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Skylon configuration: view from different sides
How does Skylon work?
Skylon will initially use propulsion to reach the upper terrestrial atmosphere, and then to get into space, its engine will work as that of a launching rocket.
In the first phase (cycle), the engine uses a special pre-cooling technique which take oxygen from the atmosphere and cools it by more than 100 degrees Celsius, before compressing it in the combustion room whre it burns with hydrogen. Air humidity should normally form ice crystals at that altitude thus blocking the special pre-cooling pipes, but the presence of helium in these pipes will prevent the crystal formation. The cooled oxygen is then used to propel the aircraft.
The second working cycle of the engine kicks in afterwards, when liquid hydrogen mixed with small amounts of liquid oxygen, propel Skylon into space. This approach leads to a significantly lower weight for the spacecraft, which should thus be able to get directly into orbit without having to go through many intermediate stages that are usually used by the conventional rocket engines.
Skylon expected to reach any point on Earth in less than 4 hours after performing space flight