the a2 is not a space plane its an airliner.
the skylon is a satellite launch vehical.
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the a2 is not a space plane its an airliner.
the skylon is a satellite launch vehical.
And I'm guessing the pilots just use 'The Force', seeing as there are no windows.
Pilots are barely used as is, they only serve as backups and usually don't need their view anyway, if they do I am sure a low latency display will be put in the cockpit.
Fantastic its a British company.
I wonder how long now till we see the first truly reusable space craft.
5 years after they sell the intellectual property to an american company for 2 dollars and a hershey bar.
Yep, still bitter about the jet engine...
I'm either having some serious Deja Vu, or the video in that BBC article has been released a while ago. I've seen it before, i'm sure of it!
Ah, in April. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17864782
Ah, in April. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17864782
Presumably he stops stuff sticking to other stuff
Awesome vehicle, hope it sees the light of day and the green brigade don't get it banned
That would be Teflon.
This has been around for years (The Americans have something similar)
We would have it done and dusted by now but the stupid British government slapped a top secret order on it and the team couldn't get funding, so basically the only people who knew how to build the thing were sat twiddling their thumbs for 20 years unable to do any work, meanwhile steadily getting older or having to work on unrelated projects.
The Americans are not as dense but are not any further forward.
Hopefully the poor sods can pull this off before our government screws it up.
It's the Jet engine story all over again, you couldn't make this stuff up...
We would have it done and dusted by now but the stupid British government slapped a top secret order on it and the team couldn't get funding, so basically the only people who knew how to build the thing were sat twiddling their thumbs for 20 years unable to do any work, meanwhile steadily getting older or having to work on unrelated projects.
The Americans are not as dense but are not any further forward.
Hopefully the poor sods can pull this off before our government screws it up.
It's the Jet engine story all over again, you couldn't make this stuff up...
So let me get this straight. This would mean a craft would be able to take off like a jet liner and fly up to a high hight, and then turn into a rocket to get massive speed up there, but all by using just 1 type of engine rather than 2?
Thats cool.
Thats cool.
Something with much the same idea, they haven't developed the precooler idea though.
Certainly the idea has been talked about since I was a kid.
Deliberately delaying development for decades is an issue and there is nothing to say they won't declare it a military secret once more.
This will be like scramjet. (assuming it already isn't)
British invent, develop it, call it a waste of time as it is pretty pointless and stop funding. Amercians pick up the can a couple of decades later, claim they invented it, and try to think up new uses for it.
British invent, develop it, call it a waste of time as it is pretty pointless and stop funding. Amercians pick up the can a couple of decades later, claim they invented it, and try to think up new uses for it.
A scramjet/ramjet is similar?
Air goes in at hypersonic speeds,
add fuel, stuff go boom
Sabre adds a precooler
No they aren't similar.
It is massively more complicated than a scranjet.
@PhillyDee It's also far from pointless it would be a massive step forward in low orbit space flight and can potentially lower the cost per kg to low earth orbit iirc from about $11k to $600. As well as far faster turn around and being able to launch from hundreads of new locations.
It's got nothing to do with uk government, allyhough uk government is in support of it. They could basically win every satelite contract overnight if they built it. Obviusly with companies like space x cost is reducing. But Skylon is a different bread altogether.
It is massively more complicated than a scranjet.
@PhillyDee It's also far from pointless it would be a massive step forward in low orbit space flight and can potentially lower the cost per kg to low earth orbit iirc from about $11k to $600. As well as far faster turn around and being able to launch from hundreads of new locations.
It's got nothing to do with uk government, allyhough uk government is in support of it. They could basically win every satelite contract overnight if they built it. Obviusly with companies like space x cost is reducing. But Skylon is a different bread altogether.
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