If you hate flying, then this tech news is music to your ears. British Reaction Engines invented the Skylon, a plane that will take us anywhere in four hours. Yes, anywhere in the world. But that's not all. They set themselves a higher goal: space flight.
Reaction Engines used the technology that enables the aircraft to be built Skylon five times the speed of sound. The secret is in the "Sabre" system, which cools the engine by as much as a thousand degrees in one hundredth of a second, without creating ice. For this purpose, they used thin tubes filled with condensed helium.
Although the company hopes to eventually build a super-fast plane that can transport up to 300 passengers, the technology is not just for traveling around the Earth. It should only be used for passenger purposes on ten percent of flights, while the rest of the journeys should be made by Skylon into space.
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By taking off and landing horizontally, Sklyon will be able to fly directly into orbit and back to Earth in one continuous phase. That will be reduced the cost of spaceflight and enabled more ambitious space missions, as it was possible to imagine them until now.
Test flights with the Skylon are currently planned for 2019.
More information:
reactionengines.co.uk/space_skylon
