Latest news with #FrazerNash
The Sun
21-07-2025
- Science
- The Sun
UK-led plan to build 4,000mph hypersonic plane ‘The Sabre' that flies on edge of space going from London to NY in 60mins
BRITAIN is leading plans to build a hypersonic plane that could fly on the edge of space and travel from London to New York City in 60 minutes. With a breakthrough design and cutting-edge technology, "The Sabre" will be able to fly at a speed of Mach 5 (4000mph) - which is five times the speed of sound. 6 6 6 And engineers are inching closer to putting the state-of-the-art machine in the skies - which could happen as early as 2031. The £6million plan to develop the jet of the future is called Invictus, which is being led by UK-based Frazer-Nash consultants. Plans launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) are to develop a fully reusable experimental aircraft that can fly at sustained hypersonic speeds. It will fly on the edge of space and will also have horizontal takeoff capabilities. This means that flying time from London to New York will be slashed from seven hours to just 60 minutes. The Invictus testing vehicle will be upgradable, allowing for the exchange of materials, software and propulsion systems between flight test campaigns. At the centre of the futuristic technology is a pre-cooler system, which has been tested for the Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine (Sabre). Sabre engines combine aspects of jet and rocket propulsion and can pull oxygen out of the air during flight at lower levels of Earth's atmosphere, increasing efficiency. While flying at speeds such as Mach 5, overheating and air friction are the main problems. Pre-cooler systems solve this problem, cooling "the air before it reaches the engine, allowing conventional aircraft engines to travel at hypersonic speeds," Frazer-Nash said in a statement. Watch moment hypersonic jet 'Quarterhorse' makes first flight in big step towards trips from London to NYC in 90 mins It is understood that over the next 12 months, the highly-skilled team at Invictus will finish the concept design and develop a full flight system for the aircraft to fly by 2031. Sarah Wilkes, chief at Frazer-Nash said: "INVICTUS is an exciting opportunity to provide advanced technology for space and advanced capabilities in defence. "With strong industry support and deep engineering and aerospace expertise, including Frazer-Nash colleagues with a decade of propulsion experience, we have all the right ingredients to make this ambitious vision a reality.' Tony Forsythe, Head of Space Technology at the UK Space Agency, added: 'This exciting project, made possible by our investments in the European Space Agency, has significant potential to build on advanced cooling and hypersonic propulsion technology developed by UK engineers over many years." Meanwhile, a hypersonic passenger jet which could take travelers from London to New York City in just one hour is set to arrive as "as soon as the 2030s". The Venus Stargazer is being developed by Venus Aerospace who revealed that it was planning a flight demo "later this summer". The company said that thanks to a Nasa-funded breakthrough, the "record-setting" engine system is nearly ready to try out for real. Venus hopes that its rocket engine will be able to blast passengers around the Earth in record time. " Stargazer M4 is Earth's first hypersonic, reusable aircraft," Venus Aerospace boasted. "No one has ever built a hypersonic platform that makes two-hour global transport cost-effective. Until now. Meanwhile, a massive plane dubbed the 'Skytanic' is set to take to the skies by 2030. The US is reportedly planning for a 'Son of Blackbird' jet that could become the world's fastest plane. And another hypersonic jet could whisk passengers from London to Sydney in just two hours. 6 6 6
Yahoo
19-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Europe working to launch 'Invictus' hypersonic space plane by 2031 (video)
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Europe doesn't want to be left out of the space plane party. The European Space Agency (ESA) is funding the development of a hypersonic space plane pathfinder, which will start flying by 2031 if all goes according to plan. The work is being done via a research program called Invictus, which is led by the consulting firm Frazer-Nash. Invictus will leverage technology developed by the English company Reaction Engines Ltd., which aimed to build a huge space plane called Skylon but went bankrupt last year. The key piece of Invictus tech is a "pre-cooler," which Reaction Engines built and tested for its Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine (SABRE). SABRE combined aspects of jet and rocket propulsion; it was designed to pull oxygen out of the air during flight at lower levels of Earth's atmosphere, reducing the need to carry propellant and therefore increasing efficiency. "Aircraft that fly at hypersonic speeds — more than 5 times the speed of sound — face extremely high temperatures due to shock heating and the friction from the air. Typical aircraft engines cannot operate in these conditions, as the air is too hot to handle," Frazer-Nash representatives said in a statement. This pre-cooler solves this problem, cooling "the air before it reaches the engine, allowing conventional aircraft engines to travel at hypersonic speeds," Frazer-Nash added. Invictus isn't a huge project; its funding is 7 million pounds (about $9.4 million US at current exchange rates), according to the company. But it could have a big impact on European spaceflight, according to ESA. "Hypersonic flight is not just the next frontier of aerospace — it is the gateway to a new paradigm of mobility, defense, and space access," Tommaso Ghidini, head of the Mechanical Department at the agency, said in the same statement. "With Invictus, Europe is seizing the opportunity to lead in technologies that will redefine how we move across the planet and reach beyond it," he added. "By mastering reusable, air-breathing propulsion, we are laying the foundation for aircraft that take off like planes and reach orbit like rockets — revolutionizing both terrestrial and orbital transportation." Related Stories: — US and UK militaries pick Rocket Lab's HASTE launcher to help test hypersonic tech — Facts about Reaction Engines' Skylon space plane — Space Force aims to launch 1st 'Foo Fighter' satellites in 2027 to track hypersonic threats The plan calls for the Invictus team — a consortium led by Frazer-Nash that includes Spirit AeroSystems and Cranfield University, among other partners — to deliver "the concept and elements of preliminary design of the full flight system" 12 months from now. The "full flight system" will be a reusable vehicle that takes off from, and lands on, a runway like an airplane. It will be up and running by early 2031, if all goes to plan, and could have a variety of uses and applications. "We look forward to seeing how the work develops and the opportunity it presents for boosting economic growth and national security," Tony Forsythe, head of space technology at the U.K. Space Agency, said in the same statement. Invictus isn't the only European space plane in development. Last month, for example, the French government and the French company Dassault Aviation announced plans for a demonstrator called VORTEX. Space planes are experiencing something of a resurgence after the retirement of the most famous such vehicle — NASA's space shuttle — in 2011. The U.S. military operates a robotic orbital space plane called the X-37B, for example, and China has a similar vehicle, called Shenlong. Virgin Galactic flies a suborbital space plane for tourism and research purposes. A number of other companies are developing space planes as well, including Sierra Nevada Corp., Dawn Aerospace and Radian Aerospace.
