Ahhhhhh Yeahhhhhh! It flies at mach 6!

[ATI_7500]

I've heard of the HOTOL before,but I haven't thought that it would have been that effective...


Yes,the SR-71 is a masterpiece of engineering,especially if you consider that this aircraft is from the early 1960s.

[Hagar]

Yes, I can see why you are leary Hagar. That idea of HOTOL is gay. :-/

Maybe now you can understand what I'm getting at. Given the necessary funding I have no doubts that HOTOL would have worked & might yet do so. It seems to me that the 2 concepts are very similar with exactly the same problems. The only difference is the method of propulsion. You are still faced with boosting the thing up to the correct speed before the motor will run.

HOTOL would have taken off from a normal runway, like an aircraft. A rocket powered "sled" would accelerate it to take-off and then to several times the speed of sound. At this point, the sled would parachute back, and the RB454 would take over, extracting the air's oxygen to burn.

In scramjets, oxygen is rammed into a combustion chamber where it mixes with fuel and spontaneously ignites. To work, the engine must be traveling at about five times the speed of sound - requiring an initial boost that only a rocket can provide.

Even if this is possible in a single airframe it doesn't seem practical to me. It might be suitable for military use but I can't think of anywhere a civil version could be operated from except vast uninhabited areas like a desert. People seem obsessed with the idea of supersonic travel but forget the practical aspects. Concorde proved that this is a highly expensive method of travel which only the very wealthy minority could afford. The time involved in travelling to the airport, passing through customs/security checks & travelling to your destination at the other end often took longer than the actual flight. Rocket motors are extremely noisy. Even with conventional gas turbines Concorde was limited to where it could operate from & for this reason never reached its full potential.

[Craig.]

well untill the shockwave from breaking the sound barrier is surpressed they cant travel over populated areas anyway

[IcedFoxtrotter]

It isnt intended for use around populated areas.

[Woodlouse2002]

It isnt intended for use around populated areas.

Right then, so when it becomes feasable it will not be for civil use and any military aircraft won't be allowed near any inhabitated areas of the world. A most fabulously useful piece of kit.

[IcedFoxtrotter]

Right then, so when it becomes feasable it will not be for civil use and any military aircraft won't be allowed near any inhabitated areas of the world. A most fabulously useful piece of kit.

Remember the military is exempt when they need to?

[Woodlouse2002]

Remember the military is exempt when they need to?

Yes. But when they "need" to is when the country is under attack. So all these fighters and bombers won't be able to take off from the factory intill someone tries to invade the united states. Just remember that the inhabitants of America won't want all their windows smashed just because G.W wants to bomb a few caves on the other side of the planet.

[RitterKreuz]

The plan would be to load the aircraft onto the back of a 747 "shuttle piggy back" style and fly them to remote bases in the south pacific for operational testing.

[ATI_7500]

By the way...your nick is spelled wrongly. It's "Ritterkreuz",not "Ritterkruez".