You are not logged in.
Skylon and the Sabre engine came up in the Zoom meeting 2023/08/06 ...
There is an interview with CEO dated in March of 2023.
The key concept I pulled from the article is that Skylon may be giving up on the Single Stage to Orbit idea, and focusing on a booster concept for a Two Stage to Orbit system.
Another concept I pulled from the article is that Skylon may be able to license the technology for cooling in applications ** other ** than space.
(th)
Offline
Like button can go here
Index to posts contributed by NewMars members:
http://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php … 63#p227663
Post #4 by kbd512
This post provides a comprehensive overview of the Sabre technology and calls for continued development
Article quoted...
On the record with Mark Thomas, CEO, Reaction Engines
What links hypersonics, spaceplanes and sustainable aviation? Listen to an exclusive audio interview with Reaction Engines' CEO Mark Thomas for an insight into how its revolutionary air-breathing rocket engine technology is now spinning off into new applications. TIM
ROBINSON FRAEs reports.Mark Thomas, CEO Reaction Engines. (Reaction Engines)
One of the latest guests on good friends and supporters of the RAeS, Aviation Xtended podcast, was Mark Thomas, CEO of Reaction Engines, who provided a fascinating insight into this UK company working right at the cutting edge of aerospace technology.
Probably best-known for its SABRE air-breathing rocket engine, the pre-cooler technology that enables it has now expanded into beyond its Skylon space spaceplane concept into multiple applications, including hypersonic demonstrators, Formula 1, battery thermal management and sustainable aviation - taking the company off in exciting new directions.
Says Thomas of the pre-cooler technology from SABRE: "Probably our biggest accomplishment is around our pre cooler technology, which is a really novel technology that enables you to break through the heat barrier. We've demonstrated that both to cryogenic levels and also to the most extreme, high temperatures, equivalent to molten lava flowing through our pre cooler and being quenched instantaneously. That's equivalent to hypersonic speeds of Mach 5.5 or above".
Britain joins the hypersonic race
This futuristic 'Concept V' shape turned heads at the Farnborough Air Show in 2022. (Reaction Engines)
With military interest in hypersonics accelerating around the world, Thomas also provided an update on the Concept V demonstrator unveiled last year at the Farnborough Air Show. The company is partnering on the HVX with Rolls-Royce, the Royal Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO), the UK Government’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and the UK’s National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF) to develop and fly an uncrewed hypersonic prototype.
Explains Thomas: "Many aspects of that particular project are classified, but what I can tell you is is absolutely full-on at the moment. We're in active testing on the ground now of aspects of the propulsion system that will power that vehicle."
While the sci-fi looking 'Concept V' stole the show at Farnborough last year - Thomas hints that the actual flight vehicle is even more radical. "What we released [at Farnborough] was a conceptual vehicle, but what is actually being worked is even more exciting, I should say. When that does get a reveal, I think it will blow people out of their seats."
Sustainability spin-offs
Cranfield Aerospace Solutions/Britten-Norman's zero-carbon Islander will incorporate heat exchangers from Reaction Engines into the design. They are the large air intake-style devices underneath each engine nacelle. (CAeS/B-N)
However, one of the most fascinating aspects of Reaction Engines' strategy it how its mastery of thermal and heat management is now attracting attention from other sectors that want to fly greener, not faster. As the world shifts to decarbonisation, thermal management of batteries, fuel cells and electrical power systems has become more and more of a challenge.
Says Thomas: "What's emerged in the time I've been in the company is the real Net Zero imperative. Everything we look at, we can see an application for our technology. It's really space technology that's being engineered for near term applications here on Earth, but with a very strong sustainability focus."
For example, the company is working on the pre-cooler/heat exchange for Project Fresson, which will see a Britten-Norman Islander equipped with hydrogen fuel cells to convert it into a zero-carbon commuter/sub-regional airliner. While removing the combustion engines for fuel cells gives a clean propulsion system that only produces water as a by product, it also produces lots of heat, says Thomas: "You have to do something about the heat, and that's where we step in with our technology to really efficiently and effectively manage that heat problem".
(Indeed, on 21 April it was announced that Project Fresson, far from a one-off demonstrator, would be the basis for a new UK civil aircraft company, with Cranfield Aerospace Solutions and Britten-Norman to merge to develop new commercial, zero-carbon airliners.)
This spin-off cooling tech also has applications for electric cars. Says Thomas: "On the electric vehicle side we have a battery cooling technology that is really exciting and enables you to put a very effective cooling system between the cells in your battery pack and keep those nicely conditioned. That's a really big market potential and it will be needed in millions, if not billions of units at some point."
Wither Skylon?
Reaction Engines see a two-stage space access system as a step towards a full SSTO spaceplane. (Reaction Engines)
Finally, many people following Reaction Engines' progress will be curious about the current status of its SABRE-powered Skylon SSTO (single-stage-to-orbit) spaceplane, which promises reusable, low-cost access to space. In the podcast, Thomas reveals the company's pragmatic pathway to this next-generation launcher: "[Skylon] was the pursuit of the company from from early days off the back of the HOTOL project, which is similarly ambitious. We've developed lots of the technology as a result of going for that very high bar, kind of system. What's more likely is a two-stage-to-orbit system, so you'd still have a very capable and reusable fully reusable first-stage launcher that could well operate in a horizontal take-off and landing configuration, but you'd have a more an expendable, or less reusable, upper stage that did the final push to orbit" adding: "What we're trying to do at the moment is plot the pathway between the hypersonic system and some of those future launch systems."
Summary
Listen to more of the interview that also takes in skills and STEM, Reaction Engines' US arm and what inspired Thomas into a career in aerospace propulsion over at AviationXtended.
Mark Thomas will be a speaker at the RAeS Future Combat Air and Space Capabilities Summit on 23-24 May.
Tim Robinson FRAeS
25 April 2023
Offline
Like button can go here
It is time to bring this topic back into view....
As noted by GW Johnson, Reaction Engines is reported to have run out of early stage funding.
http://newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php … 49#p227649
However, in a recent post (which I looked for but did not find) kbd512 suggested this is a good time for someone(s) in the US to swoop in and pick up the intellectual property of the Reaction Engines initiative and finish the job.
My guess is that the early funders of Reaction Engines will never see a return on that investment, as things stand.
This topic is available for anyone who has the time to investigate the history of funding vs results of the Reaction Engines initiative.
The key technical achievement (as I understand it) of the Reaction Engines concept was the use of liquid hydrogen to cool incoming air to a temperature at which combustion could occur. If the early stage funders gave up and no middle stage funders appeared, my guess is that prospects of success did not improve.
There may be something about the concept that cannot be overcome by existing human capability.
Never-the-less, there may be something about the cooling technology that could be applied in another context.
Just throwing out a thought here, but...
1) Cold ** inert ** gas could be fed into the air stream ahead of the hings for the flaps in Starship
2) Cold ** inert ** gas could be fed into the engine bay of Starship Booster to suppress fires due to leaks of methane
(th)
Offline
Like button can go here
Financial Times: British aerospace pioneer Reaction Engines collapses into administration October 31, 2024
British aerospace pioneer Reaction Engines has collapsed into administration after failing to secure new funding, ending ambitious hopes of revolutionising air travel by making hypersonic flight a reality.
...
A spokesperson for Mercedes F1 said the company was in “active dialogue with the administrators to ensure the necessary hardware supply for the 2025 season”.Reaction’s technology is part of the cooling system in the engines used by Mercedes F1 and supplied to McLaren, Williams and Aston Martin to help optimise performance.
The company’s demise could also trigger a battle over the ownership of the intellectual property of its cutting-edge technology
...
The company’s collapse raises questions over a UK-led military project to pursue reusable hypersonic air vehicle technologies.Along with Rolls-Royce, the Royal Air Force and the defence research agency Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, Reaction was part of the consortium behind the project, which had hoped to fly a demonstrator vehicle as early as the middle of this decade.
Offline
Like button can go here
For all the people who want CO2-free Hydrogen-fueled hypersonic airliners, this is a lynchpin technology. There is nothing else out there like this tech, at all, period. It's a very clever heat exchange system that condenses O2 out of the incoming air stream, performs a heat exchange with the onboard LH2 fuel, and then force-feeds the expanding H2 and O2 gas into the main combustion chamber.
The jet engine and rocket engine are conventional tech, and that's a good thing. The "real magic" is what happens before fuel and air meet the spark. Our military has already dumped truckloads of money into this project. As near as we can tell, it actually works. The company management couldn't "manage", quite likely because they're real engineers, not real managers. That's an annoyance, not a reason to refuse to drag this tech across the finish line.
Completing development of the engine is what matters here. We already have hypersonic companies which can figure out the airframe, flight control systems, and logistics of making it work. If they had this tech, it would be a boon to their development programs. Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, Northrop-Grumman, and Darkhorse all have workable hypersonic engines based upon ordinary jet engine tech with novel air control methods. If they had this British "pre-stage" tech to suck in LOX to feed their engines, it would be the difference between showing up to the drag race with a gasoline engine vs a nitro-methane engine.
Recall that the "greater magic" of our Mach 3 SR-71, which did not destroy its engines the way the Russian MiG-25 did, was in its intake tech. The ability to heat exchange with the LH2 fuel, to suck in "air" near the temperature of LOX, is equivalent to having a giant turbo force-feeding cold compressed air into your jet engine.
Isp within the atmosphere reaches 3,500s. Isp in pure rocket mode drops back to 450s. This is one of the very few orbital space plane concepts where using Hydrogen makes sense, because Isp is high enough that the run up to Mach 8 (booster burnout velocity for a conventional TSTO) that the vehicle's size doesn't increase to the point of exceeding the tensile strength of the latest composite materials.
Space Shuttle spent about 2 minutes climbing until achieving SRB separation. The trio of RS-25 engines in the orbiter itself were also thrusting during this time.
Skylon would spent about 13 minutes gradually climbing and accelerating to the same altitude / velocity, until rocket engine ignition at 28,500m in altitude, whereupon Isp drops back down to 450s.
At 450s, 100t of propellant available for thrusting provides 3,059m/s of Delta-V.
At 3,500s, 100t of propellant available for thrusting provides 23,791m/s of Delta-V.
In 120 seconds (the period of time from booster ignition to booster burnout), 3X RS-25s burn through 185,216.4kg of propellant.
In 780 seconds, equivalent-thrust SABRE engines burn 154,787.75kg of O2 and H2. That doesn't seem like much of an improvement, but we also seem to be forgetting about something here... None of that O2 mass came from onboard the SABRE-engined vehicle itself. 88.81% of the mass of water is Oxygen, by weight. That means our new space plane only has to carry and accelerate 17,320.7kg of H2. That is 10.69X LESS propellant than 3X RS-25s would burn during the Space Shuttle's first two minutes after liftoff. We seem to be missing something else here... Our SABRE-engined space plane doesn't need a pair of gigantic solid rocket boosters to leave the ground. That's an additional 1,000t of solid propellant, plus 180t of dead weight associated with the steel SRB casings. We actually require 68.43X LESS propellant mass.
For the first 2 minutes of flight, we require about 17,321kg of LH2. SRB burnout velocity is only 1,219m/s. That means we need to accelerate by another 6.6km/s to achieve orbital velocity, except that our velocity after 13 minutes is 1,886m/s, so we need to add 5,914m/s in order to achieve 7.8km/s. Assuming we're accelerating at a constant 2g, after 305 seconds our final velocity is 7.87km/s. We will burn through an additional 470,758kg of LOX/LH2 propellant.
Space Shuttle's External Tank contained 733,500kg of LOX/LH2 propellant.
We will have put a payload mass in orbit, great than what the Space Shuttle could carry, while using 488,079kg of propellant, which is 66.54% of what the External Tank carried. Space Shuttle required 1,733,500kg of propellant (APCP + LOX/LH2), SABRE engines (pure LOX/LH2) would require 28.16% of the total propellant mass that the Space Transportation System carried. SABRE engine technology represents a 4X greater "bang-per-buck" payload performance ratio. Apart from rail guns / light gas guns / spin launchers, this represents the lowest vehicle / heat shield / engine / propellant mass to orbit.
SABRE is the only practical type of LOX/LH2 SSTO, and it's HTHL, just like an airliner, because total propellant mass and aerodynamic performance are the figures of merit. If you want to use VTHL SSTO, then use LOX/RP-1, because density impulse is the figure of merit. Low density impulse propellants are non-starters, because the vehicle volume and mass grows too fast. If you want to do VTVL TSTO, then use LOX/LCH4 or LOX/RP-1, because no other propellant combination maximizes thrust and minimizes vehicle volume and thus inert mass. The same figures of merit that apply to VTHL SSTOs to the n'th degree, still apply with full force to all VTVL TSTOs (Falcon, Starship, Neutron, Vulcan, whatever that new Chinese rocket is called). Solids and LOX/LH2 are optimal for 1.5X STOs (Space Shuttle, Titan, Delta-IV), because you have a massive amount of thrust to clear the atmosphere, followed by a high-Isp sustainer to accelerate to orbital velocity. LOX/LH2 is also an ideal upper stage propellant. LOX/LH2 excels at no other applications, because the density is so absurdly low, so you must somehow offload the mass and volume of the LOX, which is what SABRE engines do. Aerospike engine nozzles are only optimal for the booster stages of TSTOs. In all other cases, they represent a significant mass and modest performance penalty.
Now that basic research and operational flight experience has taught us where we will run into the corners of "optimum flight envelopes" for various different propulsion technologies, we can optimize vehicle designs to conform to the conditions under which the selected propulsion systems do their best work.
Offline
Like button can go here
As a follow up to a lengthy discussion in this week's Google Meeting, here is a post from a web site where detailed discussion of Reaction Engines is recorded.
ORAC
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Peripatetic
Posts: 19,226
Likes: 23
Received 2,996 Likes on 1,314 Posts
And, no doubt, theyre research and IP will be snatched up by one of the US partners working on their black projects......https://www.ft.com/content/4dc0145b-...b-2b7f73e1b6a7
Space engine start-up in talks for new capital after funding crunch
A British technology start-up that had promised to build the world’s first space plane is in last-ditch talks to secure new financing after two of its backers wrote down the value of their investment.
Reaction Engines, which was founded in 1989, is in detailed talks with the UAE-backed Strategic Development Fund (SDF), one of its existing shareholders, about a new injection of capital, according to two people familiar with the situation. The SDF led a £40mn funding round in January last year.
The British start-up is also backed by several aerospace giants, including BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce, as well as financial investors Artemis and Schroders.
Reaction has previously raised more than £150mn and grew its commercial revenues by more than 400 per cent last year. The company, however, warned earlier this year that it would need to raise additional financing. It has this weekend lined up PwC, the accountancy firm, to act as administrator if the funding talks collapse.
Sky News first reported that PwC had been put on standby. The accountancy firm, which has not yet been formally appointed, declined to comment on Saturday. Reaction also declined to comment.
Other existing investors are monitoring the situation, said one of the people close to the talks.
Artemis and Schroders both announced last week that they had significantly written down the value of their stakes in Reaction. Artemis cut the value of its 2.3 per cent holding by 75 per cent. Artemis Alpha Trust, the fund that manages the London-based fund manager’s stake, now values it at £1.2mn, compared with £6.4mn in April.
Reaction has in recent years focused on developing a hybrid jet and rocket engine, known as Sabre. The innovative engine was originally planned to power Skylon, a space aircraft also designed by Reaction.
Key to Sabre’s development is Reaction’s groundbreaking pre-cooling technology which prevents engines from overheating and could lead to hypersonic space planes. The company is part of a UK-led military project aiming to make hypersonic flight a reality. At hypersonic speeds, the temperature generated inside a conventional gas turbine would start to melt components unless they were cooled in some way.
More recently the company has focused its attention on developing nearer-term aerospace and commercial applications for its pre-cooling technology. It signed an agreement with US industrial group Honeywell to collaborate on the development of thermal management technologies to help reduce aircraft emissions.
Reaction is chaired by Philip Dunne, a former UK defence minister. It has been led by Mark Thomas, who was previously at Rolls-Royce.
ORAC is offline
I visited the official Reaction Engines web site, and found official language about the Administration of bankruptcy.
There are links provided for inquiries.
If someone wanted to buy the assets, the link for inquiries looked to me like the place to start.
(th)
Offline
Like button can go here