Cooling 1000c to 150c in 1/100th of a second. Jesus.

#1 Even better, 1,000°C to minus 150°C

Fascinating, Jim!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SABRE_(rocket_engine)

Wiki mention : "As of July 2013, the United Kingdom has earmarked £60 million for the development of a full-scale prototype of the SABRE engine, citing the viability of its core technologies based on testing performed by the ESA."

#4 If that's a hoax it's a pricey one

I heard about this in work, what they are not telling you is it's untested and very unstable even on paper. But I’m not trolling I think they Reaction eng are well on their was, he is very right in saying they have the monopoly

And now it its time to make jokes about British scientists. Well done, UK.

#3, Yikes, didn't even see the minus! Buddha!

I worry about the dangers of transporting 300 passengers in a plane powered using huge tanks of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The Hindenburg comes to mind.
I hope it works-out and becomes a new level of transport.

Sizz you need to read the link @ #6

Wow, ok, I read a little bit about this and my initial thought was, ok, its a super fancy turbo intercooler and the Wiki article seems to back up my initial impression. My only wonder is, where in the hell are they on earth that the incoming air is 1000 degrees Celcius? Is it just an issue with the metal at the leading edges of the intake heating up the incoming air? I know that the Concorde wings heated up quite a bit, and I saw a post that said the leading edge of the SR-71 wing would hit about 730 degrees. According to the concept, the engine switches to internal tank based fuels before reaching the atmospheric limit? Perhaps it would be during re-entry once the engines reopen?

Does anyone know more who can shed some light on this? Thanks in advance!

#15 The SR-71 and Concorde skin heated up due to air friction at high speeds, but the reason for high temperature on the intake of the engine; almost every supersonic engine design; the incoming air needs to be slowed down to subsonic speeds before it hit the compression stage of the engine, in the SR-71 they had a movable spike infront of the engine, Concorde had a vedge instead if i remember correctly, supersonic air will basically destroy every single fanblade in the engine if it isnt slowed down, supersonic shockwaves is really powerful.

Anyhow, the slowing down of supersonic air to subsonic air results in a compression of the air, this compression effect heats up the air and at Mach 5 the air apparently gets heated to 1´000 degrees due to this compression effect. Compressing of air can heat it up pretty quickly, enough to ignite the fuel in a diesel engine just by the high compression ratio alone.

So the Sabre engine cools this air down to -150 degrees, resulting in even higher pressure ratio inside the engine (cold air is "denser" than hot air), thats why the Sabre engine have a pretty high claimed efficiency.

I wonder if it could take me from the US to Germany in 1 hr or so. That would be great.

#12 & 14 "The design comprises a single combined-cycle rocket engine with two modes of operation.The air breathing mode combines a turbo-compressor with a lightweight air precooler positioned just behind the inlet cone. At high speeds this precooler cools the hot, ram-compressed air leading to an unusually high pressure ratio within the engine. The compressed air is subsequently fed into the rocket combustion chamber where it is ignited with stored liquid hydrogen. The high pressure ratio allows the engine to continue to provide high thrust at very high speeds and altitudes. The low temperature of the air permits light alloy construction to be employed which gives a very lightweight engine—essential for reaching orbit.

After shutting the inlet cone off at Mach 5.14, 28.5 km altitude, the system continues as a closed cycle high performance rocket engine burning LIQUID OXYGEN and LIQUID HYDROGEN from ONBOARD FUEL TANKS, potentially allowing a hybrid spaceplane concept like Skylon to reach orbital velocity after leaving the atmosphere on a steep climb."

Yes #18, I agree the ticket would probably cost a fortune for some time.