Reaction Engines Skylon
Страна: Великобритания
Год: 2019
(проект)

UK-based company Reaction Engines, based at Culham, Oxfordshire, revealed this concept on February 4, 2008 for a Mach 5 civil transport aircraft design. Developed under the three-year LAPCAT (Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologies! programme, which is 50% funded by the European Union, the company has developed a suitable vehicle configuration, dubbed the A2, which would carry 300 passengers over a range of up to 10,600nm (20,000km). The A2 could fly quietly and subsonically out of Brussels Airport into the North Atlantic at Mach 0.9, then accelerate to Mach 5 over the North Pole and across the Pacific to reach Australia in 4hrs 40mins. If there was a demand for it, the A2 could be in service within 25 years and ticket costs could be around the same as a normal business class seat. Reaction Engines have developed the Scimitar liquid hydrogen fuelled engine to power the A2.
Even when fuelled-up for an antipodal route flight, the A2 would use conventional airport runways.
Flying at 80,000ft and travelling at Mach 5 the A2 would effectively be travelling at the edge of the atmosphere with the curvature of the Earth visible.
For taxiing the A2 aircraft would be fully automatic. Noise emissions would be within current airport restrictions though new ground facility hydrogen storage tanks would be required for the A2's fuel.
Модель перспективного космолета "Скайлон" и его двигателя "SABRE"
The Skylon is intended to be light, reusable and operable from conventional airports.
The distinctively shaped Skylon will be 84 m (275 ft) long.
An impression of a Skylon re­entering the atmosphere - the vehicle is designed to be re-useable and to fly anywhere in the world in four hours.
At 143m (469ft) in length the A2 is considerably longer than the Airbus A380, but its wingspan is similar, which is important for normal runway use.
Ten main features of the British Skylon spaceplane which also gives an indication of the physical scale of the concept
The Skylon will feature a hybrid engine which will operate in both air-breathing mode and as a rocket.