A plane that could one day fly anywhere in the world in four hours, and carry spaceships out of the atmosphere without using rockets will soon be a reality after it received approval from the European Space Agency (ESA).
The ESA has acted as an independent auditor for Reaction Engines' Sabre technology 'Skylon', which works like a jet engine in the atmosphere and a rocket in space, which could transform air travel and Reaction Engines says that the technology is the biggest step in air travel since the jet engine was invented, the Independent reported.
The Sabre engine, which works using a nest of tightly-packed tubes While the jet is yet to be built, the company has the special heat exchanger which cools air incredibly quickly - taking it from 1,000 degrees Celsius to minus 150 degrees in one hundredth of a second - which helps it get around the issues that have so far held jet engines back to a maximum of about 2.5 times the speed of sound. The new engine will allow it to get up to twice that speed.
The expected design of the Skylon, imagined in its hangar Reaction Engines hopes one day to build the engine into a special plane, named Skylon, which could carry passengers to anywhere in the world within four hours. It could also carry space ships out of the atmosphere, removing the need for expensive and inefficient rockets.