What is the Skylon Spaceplane?
The Skylon spaceplane is a proposal by Reaction Engines Limited — a British company based in Oxfordshire — to build an orbital launch vehicle which could take off from a conventional runway, accelerate to Mach 5.5 using a turbojet engine, then close its air intake, switch operation to that of a rocket engine, and accelerate to typical orbital speed of Mach 23. It would then release a 13 ton payload, reenter the Earth’s atmosphere, and land again on a conventional runway. By using the SSTO (single-stage-to-orbit) approach, Skylon’s designers hope to radically reduce launch costs and open up the high frontier to private enterprise. Skylon has not yet been built, but detailed plans have been created. Reaction Engines Limited is pursuing funding to build a prototype. The most important and unique component of Skylon is its specially designed scramjet/rocket engine, SABRE (Synergic Air Breathing Engine). SABRE is an air-breathing, bi-modal engine fueled by liquid hydrogen. The engine uses a
