A French breakfast by the Rivera, an afternoon stroll on the Great Wall of China and a night admiring the starry sky in the plains of Alaska, is a day soon-to-be possible. UK Reaction Engines Limited (REL) is now performing extensive research on an aircraft to take its riders from point to point in the world within just 4 short hours.

The Sabre Engine

Skylon, REL’s aircraft, will be powered by a new high-tech engine, SABRE. The company has began early testing on this superior engine and has plans to perform the first test flight in 2019. REL asserts that the speed of SABRE will be capable in generating a speed 5 times the speed of sound or send a rocket-like craft into space at 25 times the speed of sound into the Earth’s orbit.

Mr. David Willetts, UK Minister for Universities and Science, believes Skylon will completely alter our way and experience in future travel.

Willetts expresses, “The engine being developed by Reaction Engines is a potential game-changer in terms of space technology. This successful testing validates the assessment made of the engine concept by the UK Space Agency back in 2010 and is yet another example of the UK’s world class space industry. It would be a fantastic achievement if we could one day use this home-grown technology for our own commercial space launches.”

A Cheaper Space Travel

In July, 2013, with initial testing by European Space Agency (ESA), UK invested a total of £60 million to develop a prototype of the SABRE engine, citing the viability of the core technologies based on the testing done by ESA. In June, 2014, ESA’s service study reported that Skylon may potentially, be the first and the most effective space travel invented in modern age.

Each Skylon aeroplane is estimated to cost around US $1.1 billion to build. The cost is seemingly expensive but UK’s Association of Aeorspace Universities suggests if Skylon is launched, the revenue generated could cover the initial manufacturing and operating costs and make profits for its operators once the service is established in the industry.

REL has also undergone research to review the possibility of Skylon as a commercial aircraft and found that the upright seats could be suitable for a 14-day trip in the air if it stays in zero G-force. It would, ultimately cost about €350,000 per person, which very few could afford. But REL states that the cost will drop significantly once the technology becomes common and standardized.

Hybrid Engine System

SABRE requires a high-technology cooling system, which can intake air from the engine within one-hundredth of a second (0.001 s) and cool the air from over 1000 degrees Celsius to -150 degrees Celsius, to increase the efficiency of the engine.

SABRE is also a hybrid engine. Besides the cooling system, the other engine is capable of reduce the weight carried by the quantity of oxidizers during the combustion process, which is equivalent to the engine of a rocket.

Source: Tomorrow Science