BBC Focus Magazine

[Shadowwolf]

NASA's space shuttle Discovery has completed its final mission, with Endeavour and Atlantis following it into retirement later this year.

It marks the end of a historic chapter in space travel, but a new one might not be light years away if a groundbreaking design for a fully reusable spacecraft can get off the ground.

"Skylon" may only be at the concept stage but it could usher in a new era of space exploration and discovery, says its UK-based designers, Reaction Engines Ltd.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TECH/innovation/03/10/skylon.space.shuttle.future/index.html?hpt=C2

Alas it is only at the concept stage and hence a long way from reality and if you ask me that render on CNN looks suspiciously like a J-Type Nubian Royal Starship.

[M Paul Lloyd]

Ah, splendid, well found Mr.S.

This excellent (and British no less) project has been on the drawing board since before the advent of the Shuttle. Way ahead of its time it just needs technology to catch up sufficiently to make it a reality. The Sabre engine intake condeser coils are coming along nicely, or at least so I am lead to believe.

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

[Willxx]

so will this also lead to ressurecting the British HOTOL projects? UK to Australia in 2 -3 hours?

EDIT just read online Skylon is a decendant of HOTOL

[M Paul Lloyd]

Well spotted Willxx, although HOTOL bore a striking resemblance to a scaled up air launched anti satellite project from the late 1960's and as such was never a viable proposition and even now the main stumbling block is in finding a propulsion system that can operate as an air breathing turbo jet in the atmosphere and a rocket motor outside it without incurring a huge weight penalty in the process. .

The problems involved in getting a single stage to orbit vehicle to work are simply huge and it could be another ten or even twenty years before we see a full size vehicle being launched successfully, but I wish them well with it.

[M Paul Lloyd]

Time for an update as the Skylons engine intake condenser goes on test.
I have very little idea how well these tests might be going only that they are key to the entire projects success.
One thing I can say is that the original plan was to compress and cool very thin high altitude air until it becomes liquid so that it can be fed directly to a liquid propellant reaction system and thus far they have, so I believe, only managed to reduce it from the very high compression temperatures to near 0 Degrees Centigrade, but it's a start.
With thanks to Jamie for bringing this to my attention.

Key tests for Skylon spaceplane project

Jonathan Amos Science correspondent
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.

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

[M Paul Lloyd]

Latest update, on the previous update, on this one.

British engineers have successfully tested a key component of an engine that could power a spaceplane from London to Sydney in under four hours.
The engineers have hailed it as the biggest breakthrough in aerospace propulsion "since the invention of the jet engine".
Oxfordshire-based Reaction Engines hope to build a rocket plane called Lapcat that would take off from an ordinary runway, reach speeds of around 19,000mph in the upper atmosphere and then land like a normal jet aircraft.While still in the atmosphere, the plane's Sabre engine would combine on-board hydrogen fuel with oxygen that it "breathes" from the air. But the air needs to be super-cooled for the engine to work.

Full story here
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/london-sydney- ... 46726.html

[MikeG]

Beautiful concept design, and the engine seems revolutionary. But it seems that the engine is only half the equation. The X-51 Waverider was tested at half the speed, and literally flew out of its skin. I wonder if this problem has been looked at at all?

[M Paul Lloyd]

A good point MikeG but the X-51 and Skylon utilise very different methods of both propulsion and lift.

The X-51 has to create suitable compression shock-waves on the surface of its underbelly to allow fuel to be burnt externally that in turn produces thrust but this also causes the airframe to be placed under huge amounts of both mechanical and thermal stress whilst the Skylon uses a much more conventional wing/fuselage arrangement with the thrust being generated by podded engines.

The external burning principle of the X-51 has been around a long time and in theory it should work really well, but no-one has actually managed to make it work yet.

[MikeG]

Here's another article on Skylon from Wired magazine.

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2012/11/re ... ypersonic/

[Powerman]

I can't get over the fact that it looks like something out of a 1960's science fiction epic.

[MikeG]

I can't get over the fact that it looks like something out of a 1960's science fiction epic.

Looks like its straight out of Buck Rogers doesn't it? Here's proof that time travellers exist. They've travelled to the 60's, giving us a peek at future spaceship designs.

[M Paul Lloyd]

I have to admit that it does look a lot like the Avro 730
http://prototypes.free.fr/tsr2/images/avro730_03.jpg


but in fairness a vehicle built for purpose is going to have to obey certain aerodynamic rules and conform to the limitations of the materials it is built from.
This is one of the reasons why most aircraft end up with a very familiar and recognisable layout of wings and fuselage.

The X-33 for example (intended to replace the Space Shuttle) was plagued by problems with its experimental propulsion system that no-one had managed to actually get to work properly and a lifting body fuselage/fuel tank that was beyond the specifications of our most advanced materials. It was a bold experiment but it belly flopped before it ever got off the ground.

The X-15 on the other hand was built along more conventional lines from very high quality titanium alloys and skinned with a material called Nickel X * which was so tough it required large numbers of diamond tipped drills just to put the holes around the plate edges so they could be riveted in place. It worked but it was hellish expensive.

*I have never been able to find out exactly what Nickel X is but if anyone knows please let me in on it.

[MikeG]

The X-33 for example (intended to replace the Space Shuttle) was plagued by problems with its experimental propulsion system that no-one had managed to actually get to work properly and a lifting body fuselage/fuel tank that was beyond the specifications of our most advanced materials. It was a bold experiment but it belly flopped before it ever got off the ground.

Looks like the manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, hasn't quite given up on the X33 yet. NASA cancelled in 2001, but Lockheed performed tests at least up until 2009.

Failures of the enormous, multi-lobe composite material fuel cells during pressure testing ultimately led to the cancellation of the program as a federal program in 2001, but Lockheed Martin has conducted related testing, and has had successes as recently as 2009.

[M Paul Lloyd]

Yes they have really tried but with little actual progress. A single stage to orbit is a wonderful idea but it's a big ask trying to create something that is both very light, strong, with a huge cryogenic fuel carrying capacity and able to withstand the surface friction heating of re-entry.

I have managed to find out what Nickel X is though, it's a form of Inconel which, ironically, we use a lot of where I work and I can attest to its toughness, indeed once heat treated it is almost impossible to do anything with it as it is harder than most tooling materials other than diamond.

[Diablo]

M Paul that picture of the Avro 730 has to be a fake? Isn't it?

[Lateralman]

Just a minute, I’ve spotted a design flaw, where’s the big elastic band?

[M Paul Lloyd]

M Paul that picture of the Avro 730 has to be a fake? Isn't it?

Most assuredly a fake Diablo, even down to the TSR-2's poking out of the Area 51 style hangars.
The Avro 730 never got beyond a paper study, but then again neither has Skylon, however it does illustrate the point that a similar specification often results in a very similar design, but it is also possible that Skylon's final configuration may deviate somewhat from the artists impression.

[Powerman]

Any thoughts on what it might really look like M Paul?

[M Paul Lloyd]

Ah well now Powerman, that is not an easy one to answer as the Shuttle ended up looking nothing like any of the concept designs that were drawn up for it over the decade or so before it was first unvieled.
However a few design restrictions might help us make a rough guess at it.
First of all the Skylon fuselage is basically a giant hydrogen fuel tank/oxygen because even though the engines have condensers that will allow them to use atmospheric air far longer than any conventional propulsion system it will still need hydrogen to burn with that air and then once clear of the atmosphere it will need a back-up supply of oxygen just like a conventional rocket engine. It also has to generate a degree of lift sufficient to allow it to climb to altitude and return safely for a conventional landing. Then you have to factor in the need for some form of heat shield and where to place the engines which are unlike the usual rocket engine as they need a means of getting air to them.

So taking all of that into account I'm putting my money on something along the lines of a blended delta wing plan with wing mounted engine nacelles not all that dissimilar to a Lockheed SR-71 but with a rather more capacious fuselage.
Possibly?

[Trinity]

I'm sorry to be the blonde in the room here and I get it how rockets have to go really fast to get into space but why can't this Skylon thing just fly all the way up there and back down again?