By plane anywhere in the world in four and a half hours

The aerospace company Reaction Engines Limited from the UK is working on a new engine, using which the aircraft will be able to deliver 300 passengers with luggage from Europe to Australia in four and a half hours. The maximum speed of a passenger aircraft will reach 1700 m / s, and the maximum flight range - about 20,000 kilometers. Also, new engines will be able to display aircraft in space. Technology will be available within 10 years. This is described in an article in Business Insider .

The engine, called SABER, is based on a unique technology for cooling the air before it enters the engine. The system consists of many swirling tubes with liquid helium, which cool the air to a temperature of -150 degrees. Under normal conditions, this would have caused ice, but the know-how of the company avoids this effect. The chief engineer of the project, Alan Bond, says in the video that their project is unique in its essence and has no analogues in the world. He also expresses the hope that the project will "transform high-speed aviation."



The first flight tests of the engine are planned to begin in 2019. Passenger supersonic aircraft will be called LAPCAT A2. Aircraft with the ability to enter orbit will be called Skylon, have about 90 meters in length and cost about $ 1.1 billion. The plane will take off from the runway, and land on it, like an ordinary jet plane. At low altitudes, it will work on outboard oxygen, and when flying into space, it will use an oxidizer supply. Such a combined system will reduce the required fuel supply and make it possible to enter space without the use of launch vehicles. This should sharply reduce the cost of putting goods into orbit.



But besides the huge price, there is another drawback - there will be no windows at all in the plane. But what about the species, but how to fly into space and look at the planet? But this, apparently, is a new trend in aviation - Increasingly, it is proposed to abandon portholes in favor of external cameras that broadcast the image on large screens inside the cabin.