Where's my space plane?

ChroniC

ChroniC

ChroniC

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Like the jetpack, hoverboard or robotdog i was told to expect by now, React Engines promised several years ago that there would be a tested and working jet engine that could get me to Australia in 4hrs.
What's the deal, it seems to me that they are like a free energy company who are just sourcing more and more money and always extending the deadline.
2020 is the planned test for a core engine however that was apparently the case in 2018.

Have they not also received funding from the UK government?
Im starting to think theres more chance of Half Life 3 than me sunning myself on Bondi Beach the next day. :(
 

ChroniC

ChroniC

ChroniC

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Diddums said:
Bondi beach is extremely overrated. Dead as a doornail when we went, you're not missing anything.
Click to expand...
Ive been i want go surfing again, in 4hrs god dammit.

Its the same with that scram jet technology that hasn't turned into anything useful.
Feels like the last 20 years have been much of the same stuff over and over with no real leaps forward.
 

Angilion

Angilion

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ChroniC said:
Ive been i want go surfing again, in 4hrs god dammit.

Its the same with that scram jet technology that hasn't turned into anything useful.
Feels like the last 20 years have been much of the same stuff over and over with no real leaps forward.
Click to expand...

Largely because there's no point. Relatively cheap and reliable flights carrying many people at a time at ~550mph easily beat hugely expensive flghts carrying a few people at ~2000mph and that's before you consider the vast cost of developing the planes and testing them to an adequate level.

Even if such planes were to be made, they would still be "the same stuff". They would be a plane. We already have planes. No "real leap forward" there. It wouldn't even take all that much off total journey time because you'd be spending as much time getting to the airport from your home, getting from the other airport to your destination and all the checking in and security and waiting around time would be the same.

Most of the "leap forward" new tech that makes the mainstream news every now and then is the same - nowhere near practical and not very useful even if it was.

The only things I can think of that would be a useful leap forward would be a new type of battery that was practical, could be built at scale at a viable cost and which had a far higher capacity to weight ratio than currently practical batteries and economically viable nuclear fusion. Super-concordes? Jet packs? Flying cars? All useless even if they worked. No point other than as a knowledge-gaining exercise. Which is useful, but not practical.
 

ScoTTyBEEE

ScoTTyBEEE

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The enemies of the west can’t even read or write. We’ve had no need to develop these things anymore.

Did you know one of the first things we teach Afghanis is that they’re from a country called Afghanistan. They don’t need even understand the idea of borders or nations.

Space lasers can wait.
 

h4rm0ny

h4rm0ny

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Angilion said:
The only things I can think of that would be a useful leap forward would be a new type of battery that was practical, could be built at scale at a viable cost and which had a far higher capacity to weight ratio than currently practical batteries
Click to expand...

It's called a Hydrogen Fuel Cell and you can't even mention it without Tesla owners and the environmental lobby screeching in outrage.

I'd actually like to go in a different direction to the OP. Sub-orbital flights would be fantastic and I'd love to see them. But what I'd love to see would be airships. Sure, you'd take a whole day to get to the East Coast, but you'd be doing it in something the equivalent of a cruise ship. Imagine travelling to America or the near East not in a cramped little seat but in a small cabin with a bed and a desk. Or having a small café / restaurant on board. Imagine being able to go outside and have a walk around during your flight. Airships are much slower than jets. But they have tremendous load capacity and are far more economical. Or would be at scale. They also have a valuable potential niche in freight. Various people have taken a crack at getting airships going again but getting investment is hard. The Hindenburg really altered the course of history for the worse, imo.
 
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