News Reaction Engines News

[Keatah]

Not long enough..

 

[Scattykat]

More news on Reaction Engines and their Skylon project:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17864782

Key tests for Skylon spaceplane project
UK engineers have begun critical tests on a new engine technology designed to lift a spaceplane into orbit.

The proposed Skylon vehicle would operate like an airliner, taking off and landing at a conventional runway.

Its major innovation is the Sabre engine, which can breathe air like a jet at lower speeds but switch to a rocket mode in the high atmosphere.

Reaction Engines Limited (REL) believes the test campaign will prove the readiness of Sabre's key elements.

This being so, the firm would then approach investors to raise the £250m needed to take the project into the final design phase.

...

 

[Notebook]

April 2012 News


http://www.reactionengines.co.uk/news_apr12.html

Probably seen it already, just for continuity!

N.

 

[Notebook]

RE have gone all glossy with a new look website, cooh!:

http://www.reactionengines.co.uk/index.html

Nothing new in the "news" page I think, though new stuff in the press-release section. May be other stuff, just looked back after the start of July when nothing had changed.

N.

 

[RisingFury]

cooh

Is that like cool, but with rockets? :thumbup:

 

[Notebook]

Cooh, pigeon noise...

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7125035/1/The_Pigeons_Strike_Back

Of course, it could have been a spilling mistook, or this netbook is getting smaller.

N.

 

[Notebook]

BBC article.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18784866

Move to open sky for Skylon spaceplane

 

[Notebook]

Bit of a chat with Alan Bond on the front page now:

http://www.reactionengines.co.uk/index.html

Not sure if its new, but it has some nice jet engine sounds at 2:05 in, so why not!

N.

 

[orb]

SPACE.com: British Space Plane Maker Vies for Europe's Heavy-Lift Rocket Needs

Space News: Europe’s Next-gen Rocket Design Competition Included Surprise Finalist:

FARNBOROUGH, England — Astrium Space Transportation and OHB AG will lead two consortia to perform a design of a new heavy-lift launch vehicle for the European Space Agency (ESA) following a bidding competition that included a surprise third bidder in Reaction Engines Ltd. of Britain, ESA Director-General Jean-Jacques Dordain said here July 10.

The British bidder, a company that for more than a decade has been designing a spaceplane using a radical new engine design for atmospheric and orbital flight, was not selected for what ESA calls its New European Launch Service.

{...}

 

[Notebook]

Surprised at this, can't see whats in it for REL? Surely they are pushing the SABRE engine technology, don't see how that is relevant to the Arianne program.

Must be missing something here.

N,

 

[orb]

SPACE.com: Futuristic Space Plane Concept Moves Closer to Reality

 

[Notebook]

Somehow I missed this? Considering its the nearest we have to Brunell or Barnes-Wallis..
I should be ashamed of myself.
Did any one see this?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01mqv45

N.

 

[Unstung]

Somehow I missed this? Considering its the nearest we have to Brunell or Barnes-Wallis..
I should be ashamed of myself.
Did any one see this?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01mqv45

The Three Rocketeers-2012:BBC-Future of Space travel breakthrough documentary. - YouTube

N.

I saw it, but I had to use a British proxy to see it on the BBC's website. Thanks for the Youtube link.

I never knew much about the HOTOL project and that it was directly related to Skylon, the video was quite informative and interesting.

 

[Notebook]

Excellent stuff, shows the BBC can do it when they have to. Wonder if Alan Bond will get knighted, probably desrves it for sheer persistence.

N.

 

[Urwumpe]

Excellent stuff, shows the BBC can do it when they have to. Wonder if Alan Bond will get knighted, probably desrves it for sheer persistence.

N.

I can only agree there. Especially because he really delivers, what he promises. There had been people knighted for far less. And the heat exchanger performance alone is worth an OBE or two.

 

[Notebook]

I hope so, engineers in the UK don't have a high profile, or generate much respect unfortunately. Only one I can think of in recent times is Sir James Dyson

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Dyson"]James Dyson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

He probably owes his knighthood to his design and entrepeneurship, more than pure engineering.

Good news for Reaction Engines, if Skylon actually gets built, that would be on a par with Concorde.

N.

 

[Urwumpe]

Good news for Reaction Engines, if Skylon actually gets built, that would be on a par with Concorde.

More than just that. The A2 would be a successor of the Concorde, but Skylon could be more like a matured Space Shuttle and would be on that order of engineering prowess.

Even more - even if Skylons business model would not work out perfectly, it could still permit a way easier access to space than rockets, even if rockets could be cheaper in many aspects, the Skylon could be the better infrastructure.

 

[dumbo2007]

I didn't quite understand how the nozzle outlet diameter will be changed. Was it through moving that cone shaped thing inwards ? But the cone is at the intake, not the rear.

 

[Urwumpe]

I didn't quite understand how the nozzle outlet diameter will be changed. Was it through moving that cone shaped thing inwards ? But the cone is at the intake, not the rear.

It is similar, but you need to think in different contexts there. They tested an Expansion-Deflection (ED) nozzle, this name pretty much already says a lot about how it works. After the exhaust was expanded and accelerated by the nozzle, it is deflected against the direction of thrust. By moving the pintle in the nozzle you change the expansion ratio.

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expansion_deflection_nozzle"]Expansion deflection nozzle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

Note that the outlet diameter does not change - what changes is how the exhaust is expanded. By retracting the pintle, you expand the exhaust less before it is deflected against the nozzle walls, resulting in the exhaust being concentrated on the outside of the nozzle at the exit, in a donut shaped cross section: You reduced effectively the nozzle exist area. By extending the pintle, you reduce the pressure at the entrance of the deflection stage, and the exhaust slowly starts to fill the whole nozzle exit.

 

[boogabooga]

My impression was that the lesson learned from the space shuttle was that it was nearly or actually cheaper to build expendable rockets from scratch than to inspect and maintain reusable spaceplanes.

Now, the atmosphere isn't perfectly gas. There a little bits of dust and sand about, even at high altitude due to forest fires, volcanoes, sandstorms, etc. Not to mention little bits of ice that the engine cooling will produce itself. We know that turbine compressors erode. That's a fact of life. But, it's fairly easy to replace compressor blades.

From what I saw in the video, that heat exchanger seems to be both very fragile and very complicated. But all of these little bits of solids are going to be whirling around this engine at tremendous speeds. Thousands of tiny tubes that are delicate even to touch? I have a feeling it's going to get dinged up badly if it's ever put into use.

If you want to get airliner-like costs, then don't you have to have airliner-like maintenance and turn around? I didn't hear anything in that video that addressed ruggedness, ease of maintenance, or improving turn-around time. That concerns me. I'm rooting for SSTO, but I'm afraid that these engines are not going to be as reusable as they think.

My apologies if this has been brought up before, I haven't read the entire thread.