Skylon Spaceplane


This plane will take you anywhere in the world in 4 hours...oh yea and it flies in space.


Who remembers the Concorde, the iconic, supersonic jet that could take passengers from London to New York in less than three hours? Slashing journey times in half was indeed an impressive feat, but that's nothing compared to the aircraft that British aerospace firm Reaction Engines is currently working on. Their newly designed engines will allow passengers to travel anywhere in the world in just four hours. Yes, you could get from New York to Hong Kong, or London to Sydney, in just four hours. Oh, and you can fly in space.

The new engine system that the firm is working on is called SABRE, which is a jet engine that also doubles as a rocket engine. In a commercial plane, this could whizz 300 passengers around the world at Mach 5, five times the speed of sound, "pretty easily," according to the chief engineer Alan Bond. The ambitious spaceplane the company is working on, "SKYLON," could be propelled into orbit by the new engine at 25 times the speed of sound.


As of 2012, only a small portion of the funding required to develop and build Skylon had been secured. The research and development work on the SABRE engine design is proceeding under a small European Space Agency (ESA) grant. In January 2011, REL submitted a proposal to the British government to request additional funding for the project and in April REL announced that they had secured $350 million of further funding contingent on a test of the engine's precooler technology being successful. Testing of the key technologies was successfully completed in November 2012, allowing Skylon's design to advance to its final phase. On 16 July 2013 the British government pledged £60m to the project: this investment will provide support at a "crucial stage" to allow a full-scale prototype of the SABRE engine to be built.

If all goes to plan, the first test flights could happen in 2019, and Skylon could be visiting the International Space Station by 2022. It will be able to carry 15 tonnes of cargo to a 300 km equatorial orbit on each trip, and up to 11 tonnes to the International Space Station, almost 45% more than the capacity of the European Space Agency's ATV vehicle. Dramatically cutting cost for the space program.


The company is also investigating the possibility of using the same craft to take passengers into space. Such a journey is predicted to cost some $430,000 although this will significantly decrease over time. Unfortunately, passengers might not get the views they've dreamed of as the plane DOESN'T HAVE WINDOWS. Someone seriously messed up in the design process. Instead of windows, the design team is working on a technology that will project spectacular, panoramic views from the outside onto the screens covering the inside of the cabin. Similar to some new technologies their already working on for commercial jets.

One idea that I'm really excited about is using it as a transport to take vacationers up to a hotel orbiting around the earth. I just wish we had another visionary like Kennedy to give a "We choose to go to the moon" speech...I'd call it the "We choose to vacay in space-ay" speech.

Remember you heard it first from the Lazy Boy himself. Now give me some love and massage that like button and tell everyone you know about the possibility of space hotels in 2022.

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