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(Credit: reaction engines)
A "space plane" that flies 25 times faster than the speed of sound has passed a crucial test stage.
The hypersonic aircraft is so fast that it could connect London to New York in less than 60 minutes and transport you from the UK to Australia in four hours.
Based in Oxford, Reaction Engines collaborated with the European Space Agency and the British Space Agency, as well as BAE Systems, to make this powerful aircraft.
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Reaction Engines recently tested a pre-cooler for aircraft, a technology that would allow it to travel faster than ever before.
Pre-cooling is essential to the development of the aircraft because it is necessary to prevent the engine from melting by lowering the temperature of the compressed air in the engine by more than 1,000 ° C to the ambient temperature in one twentieth of a second.
Thousands of tubes inside the pre-cooler, which are thinner than human hair, contain liquid helium that can cool the air as it passes them.
Until now, heat was a limiting factor for the speed at which planes could travel, including the Concorde which was traveling at twice the speed of sound.
This technology could now be associated with the experimental engine of the aircraft, dubbed Saber.
Saber is supposed to be much lighter than a conventional rocket engine as it would carry less oxidizing fuel.
It is designed to suck oxygen into the engine and use it for combustion, from takeoff up to just over 4,000 mph.
After that moment, the engine will have to burn liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen from the onboard fuel tanks.
The space plane should continue to use this process until reaching 25 times the speed of sound to enter the space.
The company's ultimate goal is to create a reusable vehicle with the energy efficiency of a jet engine and the power of a rocket.
The plans of the hypersonic aircraft are not limited to making people travel around the world in a fraction of the time, but also to transport people or goods in space for a fraction of the current cost.
This story originally appeared in The Sun.
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