What a great time to be an aviation/space watcher!
As we know, smart people are investing big money into the “electrification” of aircraft—so much so that it would be hard to believe that it won’t happen eventually, if not a whole lot sooner.
Now, in the last few days, I have been introduced to a new idea about which many people already know a lot. An English company, Reaction Engines Ltd., has invented/developed an engine that they say can get a spaceship directly into space single-stage to orbit.
Jets—as we all know—extract oxygen from the atmosphere. Rockets, which operate mostly outside the atmosphere, must carry an oxidizer—typically liquid oxygen—on board. This creates extra weight.
Reaction Engines Ltd. has created a two-mode space engine that will operate as a jet inside the atmosphere and as a rocket engine outside the atmosphere. Therefore it will carry liquid oxygen for use only after it leaves the atmosphere. Up to the edge of our atmosphere, it will extract oxygen from the air around it.
What else do I know about these engines? Not much at all, and I wouldn’t understand what I do know if the great folks on AVSIG hadn’t cleared it up for me.
But I do know that this is one of the many breakthroughs that make aviation/space so exciting these days.
About the Author
Ralph Hood
Certified Speaking Professional
Ralph Hood is a Certified Speaking Professional who has addressed aviation groups throughout North America. A pilot since 1969, he's insured and sold airplanes at retail and distributor levels and taught aviation management for Southern Illinois University.
Ralph Hood is also an award-winning columnist (he writes for several publications), a salesman and sales manager (he sold airplanes, for crying out loud!), a teacher (he taught college-level aviation management) and a professional public speaker who has entertained and enlightened audiences from Hawaii to Spain, and from Fairbanks to Puerto Rico.
- Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), National Speakers Association
- Past member, National Ethics Committee, National Speakers Association
- Past president of Alabama Speakers Association
- Member, Alabama Aviation Hall of Fame
- Past National Marketing Mentor, AOPA Project Pilot