A ‘Space Plane’ That Can Take You To Anywhere In The World In One Hour? Meet the Company Trying to Build It
One of the challenges of the global market is human trafficking. If your job is to take it to the other side of the world, it is not uncommon to spend more than 10 hours on the road with the best part of the day to correct a jet lag reaction. Wouldn't it be nice if you could get there in an hour?
Possibly, says Andrew Duggleby the founder of Venus Aerospace, a company dedicated to hypersonic transportation.
Duggleby has an aerospace background as a teacher and head of startup activities at Virgin Orbit in Long Beach, California. He is also an attorney at a U.S. naval base. In 2018, he was working in Japan and his wife, Sarah “Sassie” Duggleby, another founder of the company, wanted to take a trip to Texas to participate in a family event. The convenience of taking such a long trip to get a very small return — a few days out of the country — came to their home.
"Sassie wanted to get back there, but like a 13-hour flight, she would still be terribly late," Duggleby explained. "It seemed pointless unless you had a few days left."
This started a conversation about creating hypersonic transport. The specially designed aircraft is flown from the airport to the edge of space. Upon reaching a prearranged location, the rocket engines burst into flames, propelling the plane with great speed.
Aviation History
The concept of "space plane" goes back to the early days of space space. In the 1950s and 1960s NASA built a single-seat North American X-15 rocket-propelled aircraft. The pilots of the X-15 test, including Scott Crossfield and Neil Armstrong, were about to launch a flight from the newly installed B-52 bomber wing, explode to the edge of space, and land like a plane in the smooth surface of a dry lake. and surrounding areas Edwards AFB, California.
These aircraft provided valuable information on how aircraft operated at the end of space, many of which were used in space development, which many consider to be the first airplane that could be reused.
Science fiction has also embraced the concept of space flight. In the opening series of Star Trek: Enterprise there is a picture of a space plane that separates what we think is the International Space Station.
But there is a stark contrast between the science fiction and the reality and Venus Aerospace, now located in Houston, Texas, is struggling to close that gap. According to its website, the company is building a team of aerospace specialists with the aim of building a reusable, economical aircraft.
According to Duggleby, the technology to do this involves three things:
Improved engine performance
The shape of the new aircraft
Advanced cooling technology
Engine
"The construction of this new rocket engine could reduce flight time, turning it into an hour-long global transport could make it work." Explains Duggleby. "Engines are known in the industry as 'electric generators,' which means they burn gasoline in a strange way."
“It's the same weight as gasoline but more thrust. This shows a huge technological breakthrough. ”
Andrew Duggleby, CTO and co-founder, Venus Aerospace
Duggleby was quick to give an explanation, because the word "detonation" has a negative connotation not only for the general aviation community but also for those with aviation challenge. He noted that the technology of these engines and their use was "at the level of educational presentation" and there was enough display to show promise.
“All rockets are currently burning less fuel and more heat to reach astonishing levels. This new engine produces a wave that burns high blood pressure, ”he explained. “It's the same weight as gasoline but more thrust. This shows a huge technological breakthrough. ”
According to Duggleby, the plane will be able to land on March 9 on the run.
Flight Design: Waverider
Race to create a reusable aerospace design from the 1950s. The first recyclable hypersonic aircraft was the space shuttle, which used rockets to enter space, and then dropped back to Earth.
One of the first challenges with such a plane is the realization that because of the speed, many shockwaves form in the aircraft's structure — wings, nose, and tail — which can be dangerous to control the aircraft. To address this, a hypersonic design known as waverider was created. Although Venus Aerospace did not make this design, it does use technology.
"The waverider is a design that leads to only one shockwave," Duggleby said. "The design shaped the shockwave to hold the high pressure air under the car causing more height, less pulling."
This process is known as compression lift.
“The plane landed on Mach 9 and lasted for five minutes, the engines shut off and the plane took off for thousands of miles. You can travel from San Francisco to Tokyo in an hour, ”he said.
It's cool
The last part of the technology that makes a hypersonic aircraft work is the development of advanced cooling. Previous designs of hypersonic planes relied on ceramic tile for heat dissipation. It was not uncommon for a shuttle to lose a few tiles after arrival. These tiles needed to be replaced before the shuttle could be used again.
But Venus' design incorporates a plane's steel nose, which allows the air frame to release heat faster.
"Upon arrival, there may be a visual inspection and in theory a plane could make another flight on the same day," Duggleby said. "The fastest way to turn a motorcycle into space was nine months."
