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The plane that could fly ANYWHERE in four hours

1,038 views · Published 17 December 2014 · 2:31 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: vyganews com · 2014 · Entertainment

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Skylon space plane concept with Sabre engine aims to travel at speeds of Mach.

Reaction Engines claims Sabre can be used to help accelerate existing aircraft up to five times the speed of sound and plans to use the technology on a unique 3,500mph 'spaceplane' called Skylon.

An ESA study found if it were operated from Europe's launch site in French Guiana, together with a reusable upper stage, the project can meet all Europe's launch operator requirements - and be far cheaper than any other option

The Lapcat A2, a passenger plane using the an aircraft carrying 300 passengers could go from Europe to Australia in about four hours.

A small British aerospace company claims new developments in the design of its hypersonic Skylon space place concept mark the biggest breakthrough since the since jet engine.

The Skylon space plane could, theoretically, travel to space and back without disposing of any rocket stages thanks to its Sabre engine, developed by Reaction Engines.

Reaction Engines claims that the Sabre engine could double the normal top speed of conventional jet engines from Mach 2.5 times to Mach 5. At this speed a flight from New York to Tokyo would take just a few hours.

While the company isn’t saying exactly how it works, we do know that the engine uses atmospheric air, instead of tanked oxygen.

Although other vehicles like the U.S. Air Force Waverider or DARPA’s HTV-2 scramjets have also used atmospheric air to generate huge amounts of thrust, they still need rockets to reach the high speeds required for the powerful propulsion systems to engage. Reaction says its Sabre engine can switch between hypersonic speeds after taking off from a runway, without the multiple rocket stages.

The Sabre design conquers the problem of heat exchange at high speeds. Super fast-moving air that is sucked into the engine can reach up to 1,800 degree Celsius as it’s compressed before the combustion stage. This is hot enough to melt engine components. In order to counter this problem the air must be cooled extremely quickly within just one hundredth of a second.

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