China is developing a hypersonic jet...

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China is developing a hypersonic jet...

Planned space plane could drastically cut the cost of space travel

    Plans for a hypersonic space plane were discussed on broadcaster CCTV

    It would take off and land on an airstrip, using advanced hybrid engines

    State aerospace firm CASTC aims to deliver a working plane by 2030

 

China is developing a hypersonic aircraft to take pilots, and perhaps even passengers, to the edge of space.

A state aerospace firm has reportedly begun research on an aircraft capable of taking off from a runway and carrying a crew into low Earth orbit.

The design is purported to be a more efficient successor to Nasa’s Space Shuttle, which was launched on a rocket but landed on a runway.

The move could drastically reduce the cost of space travel, it is claimed

The new space plane is being developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASTC).

RACE FOR HYPERSONIC TRAVEL

Scramjets have been under development for decades, but a breakthrough came in May 2013 when the US Air Force Research Laboratory's Boeing X-51A WaveRider flew for 240 seconds over the Pacific.

It flew on scramjet power, reaching Mach 5.1 and ran until its fuel was exhausted.

Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works - builder of the Mach 3.5 SR-71 Blackbird spyplane - then unveiled plans to develop a successor, dubbed the SR-72, pictured.

 

Designed for reconnaissance and strike missions, the SR-72 would combine turbojet and scramjet engines to enable the aircraft to take off from a runway, accelerate to a Mach 6 cruise, and then return to a conventional runway landing.

Lockheed Martin believes a prototype could be flying as soon as 2023 and the SR-72 could enter service by 2030.

When completed it could dramatically reduce the costs of space travel and give China a boost in the renewed space race.

According to Popular Science, the aircraft would take off like a normal plane, before a supersonic scramjet engine kicks in to lift it to almost 100 km above sea level.

At this point, rocket boosters will provide the additional thrust, giving it enough power to escape the clutches of Earth's lower atmosphere.

Plans for the plane were discussed on state broadcaster CCTV, with a plane entering service by 2030.

With Nasa's Space Shuttle programme decommissioned since 2011, a hybrid space plane could give the Chinese an edge in the space race.

Details are sketchy at this early stage, but the craft could potentially hit speeds of Mach 5, reports Popular Science.

It comes just a few weeks after Russia revealed it was developing a hypersonic aircraft capable to travelling anywhere in the world in two hours.

The European Space Agency has also been funding research into a revolutionary Sabre Engine capable to propelling an aircraft at 4,000 mph.

 

According to Popular Science, the China’s new hypersonic space plane will use a combined cycle air breathing engine along with rocket motors.

 

This is a similar approach to that taken by the British-built Skylon hypersonic aircraft, which uses engines built by Reaction Engines to achieve hypersonic flight.

Zhang Yong, one of the engineers working on the space plane, claimed that the technology will be ready in the next three to five years, with a full-scale model ready to launch by 2030.

Yang Yang, another engineer from CASTC also hinted that space plane could be used for space tourism, as it would have a more gradual acceleration than space launch rockets.

 

Companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin are striving to develop reusable spacecraft to cut the costs of travel into orbit, but a hypersonic space plane could cut costs even further.

However, this reported timeline is extremely ambitious, and getting the complex technologies, such as the turbo engine, ready, is unlikely.

 

While it remains to be seen whether the project will be completed in the ambitious timeline, the results if it does succeed could be significant.

As well as making space travel more accessible to the masses, the aircraft could be used by the Chinese military to fly in near space at speeds that simply could not be met by other air defence systems.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3736279/China-developing-hypersonic-jet-Planned-space-plane-drastically-cut-cost-space-travel.html