Skylon would operate from a runway
Posted on 05/24/2011 4:06:07 PM PDT by decimon
A revolutionary UK spaceplane concept has been boosted by the conclusions of an important technical review.
The proposed Skylon vehicle would do the job of a big rocket but operate like an airliner, taking off and landing at a conventional runway.
The European Space Agency's propulsion experts have assessed the details of the concept and found no showstoppers.
They want the next phase of development to include a ground demonstration of its key innovation - its Sabre engine.
This power unit is designed to breathe oxygen from the air in the early phases of flight - just like jet engines - before switching to full rocket mode as the Skylon vehicle climbs out of the atmosphere.
It is the spaceplane's "single-stage-to-orbit" operation and its re-usability that makes Skylon such an enticing prospect and one that could substantially reduce the cost of space activity, say its proponents.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
People with all the right credentials have said this can’t be done. Looks like it will be done.
Not going to happen because the UK bureaucrats will regulate it out of existence.
Play among the stars ping.
So this is their newest piece of engineering. Very very nice.
They also have a successful space program.
That’s what you think. The Chinese will steal the design and build it themselves. Bureaucrats who get in the way of progress there get shot in the head.
Artistic license?
There is no way anything with that little of a wing can lift enough fuel & oxidizer to make it to orbit, let alone lift off only half way down the runway. With that long a fuselage aft of the main gear it could not have that much angle of THAT close to the runway.
/armchair aerodynamics
Damn, that is a sexy looking beast.
F104 Starfighter
X15 Rocketplane
Raw thrust overcomes a multitude of short winged sins ;)
So this is their newest piece of engineering. Very very nice.
They also have a successful space program.
The robotic Skylon aims to put about 15 tonnes in low-Earth orbit
That's the most encouraging thing in the article.
He's predicting around $450/lb. to LEO, I think SpaceX will probably have a rocket providing that price to orbit before this ever leaves the ground.
It turns out you don't need any whiz-bang technology to get to orbit cheaply, you just need a properly managed company that doesn't fall into the cost-plus development traps that make development costs skyrocket.
Kind of reminds me of Disaster Area’s stunt ship from “The restaurant at the end of the universe”:
“It was a ship of classic, simple design, like a flattened salmon, twenty yards long, very clean, very sleek. There was just one remarkable thing about it.
“It’s so ... black!” said Ford Prefect. “You can hardly make out its shape ... light just seems to fall into it!” “
There are no more engineers at NASA. Just bureaucrats with technical degrees.
And wasting time looking for ET and studies on Global Warming.
Hey, where’s the plan for Muslim outreach?
I thought DL was the largest airline in the world.
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