News Reaction Engines News

[Notebook]

June News:-

http://www.reactionengines.co.uk/news_jun09.html

Susan Allred has also now joined Reaction Engines Ltd on a full-time basis as Office Administrator and PA to the Managing Director.

Thats it sorted then, they have an Office Administrator now. How can they fail?
N.

 

[Urwumpe]

Thats it sorted then, they have an Office Administrator now. How can they fail?

By a lack of coffee? A new document archiving order? Or by her taking a 3 week holiday?

 

[Notebook]

Any of the above...plus lack of interest, lack of capital, lack of sponsorship. The worlds your lobster!

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[Notebook]

BBC article about Skylon.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/jonathanamos/

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[Notebook]

July News:

http://www.reactionengines.co.uk/news_jul09.html

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[Notebook]

August News: been on their holls!
http://www.reactionengines.co.uk/news_aug09.html

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[Aurorus]

Best of luck to the Skylon project. It seems to be the most intuitive, practical, and revolutionary design out there.

 

[Notebook]

Indeed, but I'm slightly biased....


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[Aurorus]

I saw that someone was making a Skylon addon for orbiter a few years ago.
They had come pretty far on it, but I can't find any recent traces of it.
I was hoping they had finished it; orbiter really needs a Skylon addon.

 

[Notebook]

I remember that, I thought it had been done. Maybe this is what came of that project?

[ame="http://www.orbithangar.com/searchid.php?ID=2219"]HOTOL v1.02[/ame]

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[Notebook]

September news
http://www.reactionengines.co.uk/news_sep09.html

Recruiting more staff, looks like they are starting to bend some tin.

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[Aurorus]

Thanks, but...

I remember that, I thought it had been done. Maybe this is what came of that project?

HOTOL v1.02

N.

Thank you, but I believe the HOTOL addon was already finished at the time of the development of the Skylon addon. In fact, I seem to remember that they were considering using some of HOTOL's coding for the Skylon addon. They seemed very close to completion, if not having already succeeded. It's almost like they just didn't post it on an addon site, or if they did, it's really hard to locate. If anyone has any more knowledge of the fate of this addon or its creator, please reply. I have pretty much lost all my leads and exploited google as far as I could. The link to the development page for the addon is posted below.

http://www.orbitersim.com/Forum/Default.aspx?g=posts&t=11929

---------- Post added at 07:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:06 PM ----------

Has reaction engines considered making a skylon addon for demonstration and a simple concept-tester?

 

[Notebook]

I'd forgot about that thread, looks like its gone on hold.

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[Notebook]

SKYLON Users' Manual has been released. Might have to wait for the actual machine:

http://www.reactionengines.co.uk/pdf_documents.html

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[tblaxland]

SKYLON Users' Manual has been released.

All the info required for addon building

The suborbital payload deployment is very interesting, as is the hydrolox payload interface that would allow payloads to make use of it. It is almost like turning a single stage vehicle into a two stage.

 

[Notebook]

Yes, you get your money's worth with REL.

Looking at section
3.1.2 Suborbital Deployment

SKYLON then re-enters as with an orbital mission, and
lands at a site about 10,000 km downrange from its launch site. The vehicle may then be “towed”​

back to its base.

I wonder what they mean by "towed"?

N.

 

[tblaxland]

I wonder what they mean by "towed"?

Inverted commas in that context means the customer doesn't need to know (and possibly REL doesn't know yet either...)

 

[Notebook]

I think the second, it sounds like they haven't thought through that part. If Skylon "lands-away", then it can only be at a Skylon compatabile airfield? If we assume Kourou as the nominal launch site, 10Km downrange gives you...

As its pilot-less, it could be the ultimate radio-controlled model.

N.

 

[Urwumpe]

Kourou could result in landing in Ascension ("Wideawake"), just like planned for the Hopper spaceplane.

 

[Mindblast]

I guess they could just refill with LH2 and fly back.