In a previous post about three innovative propulsion systems I very briefly covered Reaction Engines and their SABRE engine.
Progress continues, a press release from RIAT highlights another milestone;
The SABRE engine is capable of operating as a jet engine and a rocket engine, powering aircraft at up to five times the speed of sound within the atmosphere or directly into Earth orbit at twenty-five times the speed of sound. Its ground-breaking technology – an air pre-cooler – is designed to cool continuously the incoming airstream from over 1,000⁰C to minus 150⁰C in less than 1/100th of a second (six times faster than the blink of an eye), effectively doubling the current technical limits of jet engine speeds.
The tests, undertaken at Reaction Engines’ facility in Oxfordshire, integrated the ground-breaking flight-weight pre-cooler technology with a jet engine and a novel helium cooling loop, demonstrating the crucial new technologies in the SABRE engine. This success marks another major advance towards the creation of vehicles like SKYLON – a revolutionary reusable space vehicle that will be powered by SABRE engines, designed primarily to transport satellites and other cargo into space.
Read more here
Good stuff
Without wanting to sound like I’m referencing Iron Man, I’d love to know how they solved the icing problem on the pre-cooler.
I’m guessing at the size, arrangement and structure of the tubes involved, in a fashion similar to the heat exchanger solution for preventing ice build up in the fuel supply choking the engine.
Seriously hope that the UK can leverage this technology, rather than inventing it only to watch other Nations profit from it.
My Grandpa would have been excited at the continued success of these developments, especially after the RB545 disappointment.
Again for me it is the stupid piddling amount of money that company is surviving on. Where is HMG? Nowhere unless the Europe is breathed in the same sentence…….
The Other Chris
Interesting to watch Alan Bond in a lecture last year. More information here than the usual Beeb summaries.
Unfortunately he specifically wont be drawn on how the icing problem was solved (at about 44mins in)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G-HPHNrrLQ
Sounds very promising , although note no funding from USA wanted due to tech transfer concerns down the road.
Regards
I agree HMG should be putting more into this. It is one of the most promising technologies on the planet not only offering cheap access to space by hydrogen powered intercontinental flights.
I will guarantee in the end we lose out as per usual.
I never knew why Rolls Royce were not showing more interest. Mind you these days unless government is paying for it RR and BAE won’t get out of bed for R&D. I wonder if we would have had the Merlin available in 1938 with the current attitude these companies take to R&D.
Perhaps the lack of HMG, BAe and RR interest may be a (slightly) good thing? Outside investment and tech, we’ve seen projects strangled by them…
That’s true in some ways but as far as I know they need around $10 billion to get the thing of the ground and they are pinning their hopes of Europe which means it won’t happen and any tech developed through it will be lost to everyone in Europe.
I had a good chat with the REL guys at Farnborough earlier in the week.
Not sure on the icing issues myself, but bear in mind that it’s in a fairly limited section of the flight envelope (<c.30,000ft). Given that it's not a gas turbine cycle, there shouldn't be any problems in maintaining combustion in icing conditions, but rather just limiting the air flow through the engine because of the precooler icing. The main thing is that the precoolers aren't actually needed during flight in icing conditions, so might be able to circulate warmer helium or reduce flow rate in those conditions.
Europe raises a small amount of governmental development capital and calls for new proposals for its high speed air-transport aircraft. Well its a start.
http://www.aviationweek.com/Blogs.aspx?plckBlogId=Blog:7a78f54e-b3dd-4fa6-ae6e-dff2ffd7bdbb&plckPostId=Blog%3a7a78f54e-b3dd-4fa6-ae6e-dff2ffd7bdbbPost%3a5bd9f159-8da7-4c7e-be1e-e97fdd129bdf
Cooling process is likely due to the hot, pressurised air entering through the nose cone arrangement and passing around the outside of the pre-cooler, then rapidly expanding into the area on the inside of the pre-cooler, passing through the sides of the pre-cooler rather than the front.
The area inside the pre-cooler is likely kept at low pressure by the intake compressor.
[1] Animation