Skylon super machine 25 times the speed of sound

The Skylon super plane developed by British aerospace company Reaction Engines can fly to anywhere on Earth within 4 hours.

Thanks to the plane’s SABRE engine, you can fly to the other side of the world by lunchtime and be back home by dinnertime. SABRE has two modes of operation. The first is air-breathing mode, where the engine draws oxygen from the atmosphere and burns it along with liquid hydrogen in the combustion chamber to propel the plane out of Earth’s atmosphere. Once out of the atmosphere, the engine switches to conventional rocket mode, fueled by liquid oxygen, according to Science Alert.

Illustration of a super plane that can travel 25 times the speed of sound.

According to the developers, in theory, an aircraft with this engine can reach speeds of five times the speed of sound after taking off from the runway while remaining in the Earth's atmosphere. After switching to rocket mode, it will reach speeds of 25 times the speed of sound.

Another key innovation in the new engine system is cooling. Its heat exchanger is 100 times lighter than current technologies, and can cool hot air streams from over 1,000 degrees Celsius to -150 degrees Celsius in less than 1% of a second.

The project took a big step forward this week, when Reaction announced a partnership with aerospace and defense giant BAE Systems, along with a significant financial investment from the British government. The partnership will help Reaction plan to develop a new class of SABRE engines around 2020 and test them five years later.

“Today’s announcement is a significant milestone in Reaction Engines’ transition from focusing on researching and testing viable technologies for SABRE to developing and testing the world’s first full-scale SABRE engine,” Mark Thomas, Managing Director of Reaction Engines, said yesterday.

According to Khoahoc.tv