US Military Set to Unveil Concepts Based on Skylon Space Plane Tech

[bananas]

Source: Space.com

Within the next year, the U.S. Air Force plans to unveil novel spacecraft concepts that would be powered by a potentially revolutionary reusable engine designed for a private space plane.

Since January 2014, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has been developing hypersonic vehicle concepts that use the Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine (SABRE), which was invented by England-based Reaction Engines Ltd. and would propel the company's Skylon space plane.

In April 2015, Reaction Engines announced that an AFRL study had concluded that SABRE is feasible. And AFRL is bullish on the technology; the lab will reveal two-stage-to-orbit SABRE-based concepts either this September, at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' (AIAA) SPACE 2016 conference in Long Beach, California, or in March 2017, at the 21st AIAA International Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems and Technologies Conference in China, said AFRL Aerospace Systems Directorate Aerospace Engineer Barry Hellman. [ The Skylon Space Plane in Pictures]

The key SABRE technologies that AFRL, based in Ohio, will start work on later this year, and possibly fly in the future, are related to the engine's precooler. This device precools the air entering the engine at speeds greater than four times the speed of sound (Mach 4). SABRE's precooler will cool such air from more than 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit (1,000 degrees Celsius) down to minus 238 F (minus 150 C) in one one-hundredth of a second. The oxygen in the chilled air will become liquid in the process.

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Read more: http://www.space.com/32115-skylon-space-plane-engines-air-force-vehicle.html?cmpid=514648

[think]

1. Curious. What are they going to use it for?

[leveymg]

3. The concept of hypersonic bombers and cruise missiles goes back to the 1950s

Google Superhustler, TR-3B, X-37B, and Aurora.

[hack89]

4. Being able to reach any point of the globe in less than an hour

is a huge military advantage, whether it be for strike or reconnaissance.

[leveymg]

6. Missiles can do that in less than half the time, but they can't loiter

or move from target to target. Problem here is that this sort of system is a potential offensive weapon that violates treaties that ban space-based offensive weapons.

[daleo]

8. To kill people at exorbitant cost

[packman]

2. Amazing

SABRE's precooler will cool such air from more than 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit (1,000 degrees Celsius) down to minus 238 F (minus 150 C) in one one-hundredth of a second

Damn, that is impressive regardless .

[ashling]

5. That would even make a dent

the heat here in Texas this summer

[FLPanhandle]

7. Maybe in 50 years, we will be able to travel anywhere in the world in a couple of hours

Also would be of great benefit to using a launch plane for space craft.