New Hypersonic Aircraft

Just spotted this on the BBC:



news.bbc.co.uk...

It said the A2 would be able to keep a sustained speed of 3,800mph, more than twice the speed of Concorde.

At 143m (156yds) long, the A2 is roughly twice the size of the biggest current jumbo jets.

It would run on a liquid hydrogen engine being developed by Reaction Engines, based at Culham near Abingdon.

Nothing to get excited about just yet though, as they are quoted as saying it "could" be operational within 25 years . It sure is a long beast though, and I would expect that with this new runways would need to be created. Still, 5 hours to Australia from Europe is nothing to be sniffed at.

This will be kinda cool to see get off the ground. I was a bit saddened when the concords were shutdown, it was like stepping backwards in terms of advancements in technology. I hope this works out.

That design concept looks very familiar...almost like the Fireflash supersonic airliner from Thunderbirds

www.reactionengines.co.uk...

Its a concept company and if you try and get a understanding of the issues involved in the A380 and its integration to airports you would understand why this concept makes me laugh as hard as I have

Company website with very "slick" CG images linked above

The company said the aircraft, which is still at the concept stage, could be operating within 25 years

*falls on floor laughing*

Flight Global was quite kind and in hind sight I may be to harsh in my initial thoughts but the airframe and powerplant seem even beyond what the USAF has planed for its future bomber fleet so hopefully you can understand my skepticism.
www.flightglobal.com...

[edit on 5-2-2008 by Canada_EH]

hey y'all i'm new... but i've been reading ats for a while now... their is a really good article on this topic posted from popular science:

heres the link-

www.popsci.com...

hope that helps

Nice find raptor1. I was a little dubious that this would ever get any serious backing, but after reading this link just now about how the European Space Agency is funding the project, it seems the concept may become a reality.



[edit on 7-2-2008 by tronied]

Nice idea, but why does it look like the BAe HOTOL mated with a Myasischev Bounder?

I noticed that as well Waynos.

The people with the idea at Reaction Engines for the A2 have been around for quite a while and their Skylon project is very similar in function to what was planed for the HOTOL. The simple reason for its being similar to HOTOL is that its a lot of the same people from the Rolls Royce engine design team that went on to create Skylon and now A2.
Reaction has been pursuing this concept for over 15 years and so far it hasn't attracted much interest. As of 1992, the company had estimated that it would take at least 10 years and $10 billion to develop the Skylon which has stayed on the drawing board and no where else. The small number of investments that the company has received has been invested into basic research on the Sabre engine.
Its interesting that the European Space Agency is interested as they had been with the HOTOL and then withdrew support. Its possible that the last 20 years in time and tech have changed their minds but I think you will find that this concept will still struggle with the same issues as Hortol when you look at the structure and the center or pressure.

[edit on 7-2-2008 by Canada_EH]

i have just 1 word for you: thunderbirds

www.reactionengines.co.uk...

I just came accross the reaction engines page while checking out other new proposed aircraft on wiki...and so I had to come here to check in on what was the word on this company...doesn't sound so enthusiastic...but, I think they are on to something...Skylon looks pretty cool to me.
I am encouraged by the fact that these guys have been pursuing this concept so long, that the technology has actually caught up to the concept!

"The proposed engine for the vehicle is not a scramjet, but a precooled jet engine. Originally the key technology for this did not exist - the required heat exchanger was about ten times lighter than the state of the art. However, research has now achieved the necessary performance. As of 2010, the funding required to develop and build the entire craft has not yet been secured, and so current research and development work is focused on the engines, under an ESA grant." en.wikipedia.org...

So... any particular reason why they decided not to give it windows?