Developer engine SABRE British company Reaction Engines has announced the successful completion of ground testing of pre-cooling the incoming SABRE air - the very "thin places" design, a critical component of the overall system.

Recall: SABRE, hypersonic combined air-jet/rocket engine with preliminary cooling should set in motion ambitious spaceship Skylon, about which we wrote.

The complexity of the scheme of preliminary dual circuit cooling air is fed to the engine, is that the two-cycle system "gaseous helium is liquid nitrogen" has to lower the temperature of the inflowing of atmospheric air from 1,000 C to -140 C for 0.01 C. Without such cooling turbocharger will not be able to provide the engine of the unusually high compression, which alone can allow GURD Skylon to get the power needed to fly at speeds up to M5,5.

Naturally, successful tests of this crucial element attracted widespread attention. The Minister for universities and science of great Britain David Willets yesterday, during a visit at an Airshow in Farnborough, even to this little speech: "Engine developed by Reaction Engines, potentially change the rules of the game in the space industry. Successful tests [bypass refrigeration system] confirm the high assessment of the concept of the engine, made Space Agency UK in 2010... If one day we will be able to use this technology for our own commercial space flights, it will be an achievement, fantastic scale."

And the Minister is not exaggerating: developers Skylon say that conclusion kg cargo to the orbit will cost about $1,000. If you succeed, then we will talk about "a fantastic achievement" not only British aerospace, how many of all mankind.

Mr. Willets acutely noted: the likelihood that the European space Agency will undertake the financing of the Skylon is small, so that Britain will have to be prepared largely on their funds to build a spaceship.

However, the SABRE engine in itself, outside of the project Skylon, is of considerable interest: if you bring can at least it, hopefully development will pick up a British engine building companies, especially as the hypersonic SABRE originally planned as an engine not only space, but also atmospheric applications.

Based on the materials of Wired UK.