The next iteration - getting into space

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Spinney

Bimbleur extraordinaire
Location
Back up north
Article on the BBC news website

When I worked at BAe in the late 1980s, I spent just under a year on the team modelling possible designs for HOTOL (horizontal take-off and landing). The engine was a hybrid (jet engine then switching to rocket engine) - so the current investment is revisiting this. I was working on the airframe design, not the engines, but I vaguely recall that one of the problems with the engine was managing the entry gases that had to be slowed from supersonic/hypersonic speeds.
 
Article on the BBC news website

When I worked at BAe in the late 1980s, I spent just under a year on the team modelling possible designs for HOTOL (horizontal take-off and landing). The engine was a hybrid (jet engine then switching to rocket engine) - so the current investment is revisiting this. I was working on the airframe design, not the engines, but I vaguely recall that one of the problems with the engine was managing the entry gases that had to be slowed from supersonic/hypersonic speeds.
Concorde got around this sort of problem by using little movable ramps, in the intakes.
 
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Spinney

Spinney

Bimbleur extraordinaire
Location
Back up north
Concorde got around this sort of problem by using little movable ramps, in the intakes.
I think the problem with the spaceplane is that there is much more slowing down to do, as it is travelling faster, so more heat to get rid of.

I posted mainly because of the sense of deja vu I got when reading the BBC article!
 
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