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Skylon Space Plane

L

LtSmash

Lieutenant
Red Shirt
From Wikipedia, “Skylon is a proposal by Reaction Engines Limited (managed by British rocket scientist Alan Bond) for a single-stage, turbojet-based, airbreathing orbital spaceplane.”

The project has just been handed £6million from the ESA for research and development, and apparently could be flying in just 10 years. It’s designed to take off and land like a normal plane, using turbojets in the atmosphere before switching to a hydrogen rocket to boost it into orbit. It could also cut current launch costs by a factor of 10. Seems almost too good to be true, and I’m curious what the catch is. Potential shuttle replacement? Or could it lead to ESA manned spaceflight? My favorite part is how the name sounds like cylon, would be nice if that was intended... Anyways, here’s a link to an article about it from the register, with a neat animation thrown in:
Skylon gets ESA Pennies

Discuss...
 
Unmanned Spaceplane carrying Passnegers in a generic cargo Bay. Yeah that will get off the ground. How long a runway do they need to take off and land? Britain?
 
THIS IS AWESOME! I really hope this takes off (pun intended).
I hope this does turn out to be a future shuttle for the ESA for manned spaceflight, it's about time the ESA got greater recognition.
 
The engines to my knowledge were RBCC Type which do offer very good thrust to weight ratios (on average a RBCC/Ramjet scaled for Mach 6 will have about the same thrust as it's weight for takeoff) and excellent acceleration so takeoff run might not be as bad as you would think. The problem would probably be landing...
 
Wasn't the Skylon proposal made something like 20 years ago?

The technology does not currently exist for single stage to orbit though fully reusable two stage to orbit is quite doable.
 
JustAFriend said:
Al Gore's X-33 didn't get off the ground and it was closer to being a Shuttle replacement.

I wouldn't hold my breath....
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When the ESA sets it's sights on something there's no stopping them. I get a good feeling about this. The current idea of what it would look like and how it would work puts the X-33 to shame.
 
Dayton3 said:
The technology does not currently exist for single stage to orbit though fully reusable two stage to orbit is quite doable.
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To be fair, I think one of the reasons why this has been given funding now is because the technology does now exist. Something to do with cooling the air before it enters the engine so that the engine provides good thrust at all speeds and altitudes, whilst also allowing the plane to be lighter since the engine doesn't need to be made of heavier, heat resisting materials. The wikipedia article in the first post and this one explain it further.
 
Wow, imagine a whole fleet of these things. They could be launched into orbit in squadrons if ever there was a threat of nuclear attack and they could intercept any ICBMs with onboard interceptors or target enemy satellites.

But of course, that shouldn't really be getting contemplated. :shifty:

Hey, did anybody actually go the their website?

I'm curious why they've chosen not to incorporate some kind of cockpit.
 
By the time they got to orbit, all the missiles would have hit and the war would be over.
 
Forbin said:
By the time they got to orbit, all the missiles would have hit and the war would be over.
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I said if ever there was a threat of nuclear launch that they should be sent into orbit, I didn't say they send them up when the ICBMs have already been launched. The Space Planes would be up there already waiting incase of a launch.
 
yellowdingo said:
Unmanned Spaceplane carrying Passnegers in a generic cargo Bay. Yeah that will get off the ground. How long a runway do they need to take off and land? Britain?
Click to expand...

I think they're looking at changing the name to Airstrip One.

Wait a minute... :shifty:

It's an interesting idea to be sure, I haven't finished reading up on it, so I won't give an opinion one way or the other just yet. The picture on the website looks like a pretty cool design though :)
 
Doesn't look like it needs any longer a runway than the average military aircraft.

I really hate the unmanned approach though, especially when carrying passengers.

You know the biggest reason why some passenger planes in trouble are successfully landed? The pilots want to fucking live!
 
Tachyon Shield said:
The Squire of Gothos said:
Tachyon Shield said:
I hope this does turn out to be a future shuttle for the ESA for manned spaceflight, it's about time the ESA got greater recognition.
Click to expand...

Not to hijack, but for what purpose?
Click to expand...

What do you mean for what purpose? :wtf:
To take astronauts into space and to the ISS. Sure beats the proposed Jules Verne 'style' manned space vehicle.
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Why would ESA need recognition for putting people in space? Why not better the unmanned exploits of NASA's probes on Mars for example?
 
The Squire of Gothos said:
Why would ESA need recognition for putting people in space?
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To prove we have the will and the capacity to do it. The ESA should be at the forefront of all space technology from probes, satellites and to manned space vehicles.
There's also big money to be made from developing the Skylon and it will be good publicity for the ESA.
 
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