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London To Sydney in just 4 hours

Nightcleaner

Nightcleaner

Super Member
Amazing stuff

quote

Flight times from London to Sydney could be 80% shorter by the 2030s, should a hypersonic rocket engine being developed in the UK get off the ground.
The UK Space Agency announced Tuesday at the UK Space Conference 2019 that it would be working more closely with the Australian Space Agency in an agreement dubbed a "world-first Space Bridge."
The Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine (SABRE) engine, from Oxfordshire-based Reaction Engines, looks to be the jewel in the crown of this new enterprise.
"When we have brought the SABRE rocket engine to fruition, that may enable us to get to Australia in perhaps as little as four hours," said Graham Turnock, head of the UK Space Agency.
"This is technology that could definitely deliver that. We're talking the 2030s for operational service, and the work is already very advanced."

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/arti...breathing-rocket-scli-intl-gbr-scn/index.html
 
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The aerodynamic heating of the airframe is going to be more of an obstacle than this article reveals.

MOST of the advanced technology in the SR-71 family of aircraft was necessitated (for aircraft survival) because of the temperatures it had to operate in...
(air FRICTION upon the aircraft skin: all that energy poured out by the engines was returned directly to the skin by it's high speed's aerodynamic friction heating)

That pretty picture probably won't look ANYTHING like that upon the completion of a flight.
 
markthefixer said:
The aerodynamic heating of the airframe is going to be more of an obstacle than this article reveals.

MOST of the advanced technology in the SR-71 family of aircraft was necessitated (for aircraft survival) because of the temperatures it had to operate in...
(air FRICTION upon the aircraft skin: all that energy poured out by the engines was returned directly to the skin by it's high speed's aerodynamic friction heating)

That pretty picture probably won't look ANYTHING like that upon the completion of a flight.
Click to expand...
I had the exact same thought, one way to avoid that would be to fly above earth's atmosphere. Now you're a rocket in outer space, and you have the issue of re-entry. But where are you going to find enough oxygen in outer space? There isn't any.

The article focused on the engine technology, however, the air-frame will be the problem. Mach 25 in any kind of atmosphere will require an advanced material.
 
markthefixer said:
The aerodynamic heating of the airframe is going to be more of an obstacle than this article reveals.

MOST of the advanced technology in the SR-71 family of aircraft was necessitated (for aircraft survival) because of the temperatures it had to operate in...
(air FRICTION upon the aircraft skin: all that energy poured out by the engines was returned directly to the skin by it's high speed's aerodynamic friction heating)

That pretty picture probably won't look ANYTHING like that upon the completion of a flight.
Click to expand...

The SR-71 was made completely of titanium, mostly from our enemies at that time, the Russkies. Ha.

The body of this amazing craft at Mach 3.1 stretched 11 inches in flight. It was designed for panels to expand, thus leaking the jellylike fuel onto the tarmac when taking flight.

This will be a serious engineering feat to pull off, considering the 6 inches of glass the SR-71 required. Also, the control panel often hit 400 degrees Farenheit, I once read.

Think on that. Seems impossible to me. At Mach 3, you're literally faster than a 30.06 bullet.
 
...And SR-71s/YF12As were, IIRC, fussed over by specialist crews that I wonder if commercial airlines could/would afford... The latest Brou-Ha-Ha over the 737 Maxwell Smart planes-a nearly 55 yr old basic design-doesn't make me feel all Warm 'n' Fuzzy... Any commercial enterprise like the airlines, if protecting you is more expensive than KILLING you-Guess what-You're Toast.
 
markthefixer said:
The aerodynamic heating of the airframe is going to be more of an obstacle than this article reveals.

MOST of the advanced technology in the SR-71 family of aircraft was necessitated (for aircraft survival) because of the temperatures it had to operate in...
(air FRICTION upon the aircraft skin: all that energy poured out by the engines was returned directly to the skin by it's high speed's aerodynamic friction heating)

That pretty picture probably won't look ANYTHING like that upon the completion of a flight.
Click to expand...
I would think that they have a lot more knowledge now than when the Black Bird was build , 1960 ??
 
parman said:
I would think that they have a lot more knowledge now than when the Black Bird was build , 1960 ??
Click to expand...
Knowledge?? Sure.

But, physics are physics. Flying at those speeds creates unimaginable heat (which is why a pebble barely larger than a sand grain creates amazing light at night, i.e. "shooting stars").
 
Think I remember reading some when in my deep, dark past that the fuel in these "Out there" planes was circulated thru the skin as a kind of heat sink.. They leaked like sieves on the ground-nothing had been developed back then to keep them from leaking, but between their growth at speed, the fuel tanks would seal up, & the fuel apparently was not very volatile anyhow. So the fuel would absorb quite a bit of the heat that was generated. I think I also remember reading about the Concorde that its main cabin floor was mounted on rollers, as that plane "Grew" 12 feet in length at speed.. Apparently, the world of hyperspeed planes is very, very WEIRD..
 
There are whole sectors of avation and technology that SEEM neglected. Perhaps they weren't neglected, but rather CLASSIFIED.

Things like propulsion at an altitude (air density) and airspeed that doesn't overspeed the airframe
(the difference between airspeed and GROUND speed with regards to the Limiting Mach Number of the airframe) and thus extreme surface heating isn't a factor.

FLYING to orbit has popped up in several hard science Science Fiction novels, with rather interesting and plausible explanations. Lee Correy (G. Harry Stine) and David R. Palmer.

When I was a kid I remember being "steered" away from some aspects of my science projects, things like taking my cheap ass improvised (ultra lo power) microwave transmitter and using it to gauge the
radar reflectivity of various materials. JUST EXACTLY in the time frame where the stealth fighter stuff was being developed. It wasn't until YEARS, no DECADES went by that
"the other shoe dropped" and I realized my (thwarted) intentions with the project back then, with regards to the declassified stories and their time frames.

There were books in the New York Public Library that Manhattan Project Scientists identified as "The First Steps to Spilling the Beans"...
They weren't pulled - their absence would have been confirmation enough.
Instead the books were watched (honey pot), by the FBI. Anybody requesting these books were quietly investigated by the FBI...

I wonder if any of my old teachers got a visit?
 
Just today, a direct flight was made from
New York to Sydney in 19:16 hours.
It was the first of 3 for evaluation of staff performance and passenger comfort.
Article said that they had 70 minutes of fuel left.
 
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