Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologies

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The Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologies ( LAPCAT ) is a program of the European Space Research and Technology Center (ESTEC), a subsidiary of the European Space Agency (ESA). The aim is to develop a hydrogen engine with which civil aircraft can reach speeds of around 6000 km / h ( Mach 5).

The aircraft with delta wings that match the engine and should be around 140 meters long (for comparison: an Airbus A380 is around 72 m long , the Concorde around 62 m long), is being designed under the project name A2 .

For the successor to the Concorde supersonic passenger jet, engines are to be developed that could not only reach supersonic but also hypersonic . Such an aircraft with 300 passengers and a total load of 400 tons could cover the route Brussels - Sydney in four hours.

Since conventional turbofan engines (Engl. Turbofan) at 3000 km / h reached its maximum limit, only one comes ramjet engine (ramjet Engl.) In question. Since ramjet engines only work from a speed of several 100 km / h, the engine must first have a turbo function before this speed is reached. A combined engine is therefore required. The Lockheed SR-71 with the Pratt & Whitney J58 , for example, has such a combination engine .

Since even ramjet engines from Mach 5 develop overheating problems, this engine must be designed as a ramjet engine with supersonic combustion (scramjet), whereby freezing temperature systems for cooling the incoming air must be developed.

Such a system was used in the American unmanned prototype X-43A of NASA , which reached the current record of Mach 9.6 (11,250 km / h) with this aircraft in November 2004.

The flights must take place at an altitude of 20–30 km, where the air is thin enough but there is still enough oxygen available for combustion.

ESA coordinator of the 14 participating partners from the 6 EU countries Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Great Britain is Johan Steelant.

literature

  • Matthieu Lethé: The grandchildren of the Concorde. in: research eu. Luxemburg 2007, no. 53 (Sept.), pp. 28-29. ISSN  1830-7388

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