Scientists from the Tupolev Kazan National Technical Research University (KAI) have designed a supersonic aircraft for intercontinental flights in the stratosphere, follows a paper posted on Rospatent's website. Due to the increased altitude, the flight will be fast and special technical solutions will reduce energy costs. However, their use will be more expensive than the launch of a conventional aircraft, most likely, stratoplanes will be used in extreme situations, when the speed is more important than the resources expended.
Recall that the stratosphere & nbsp; & mdash; This is a layer of the atmosphere located at a & nbsp; height of & nbsp; 11 & nbsp; to & nbsp; 50 & nbsp; km. In the rarefied upper layers of the atmosphere, movements at speeds & nbsp; supersonic and & nbsp; hypersonics are facilitated, thus significantly reducing flight time over long distances. For intercontinental flights, this will save significant time. A flight between nearby points across the stratosphere is impractical: too much time and fuel will simply be spent raising the aircraft to sufficient altitude.
By the way, the development will be useful for Russian-wide flying: the ability to quickly deliver people and goods to remote areas of the country is vital in emergency situations (fires, floods, other natural disasters). Yet the distance between the settlements & nbsp; RF is sometimes & nbsp; greater than the distance between the continents.
The stratolet (as the device was called) will consist of a & nbsp; fuselage with & nbsp; fenders, horizontal control surfaces in the front and & nbsp; in the rear, combined missile or air rocket engine on & nbsp; oxygen and & nbsp; upper floor. Two gas turbine engines and a fuselage engine fairing will be attached to the engine fairing.
As the developers note, the technical solutions they came up with will create a machine that will stand out from foreign competitors with increased payload and reduced take-off time. They christened Reaction Engines Limited's Reusable British Unmanned Spacecraft Project Skylon, which is expected to take off in the air in the mid-2020s.
As stated in the patent, the British device has the following shortcomings: low engine efficiency at subsonic speeds and & nbsp; low supersonic speeds, excess weight, which is caused by the increase in the wing area of an aircraft from & nbsp; horizontal take-off on & nbsp; ground. In addition, the car will have to spend a lot of time on & nbsp; acceleration and & nbsp; separation of the track or even resort & nbsp; using special take-off carts.
The Russian stratolette will be able to get rid of these defects thanks to the principle of flight in two stages. For this reason, the fuel fill mass of the last stage will decrease and the payload will increase.
The oval shape of the upper stage wing will give extra lift. Thus, the time that the glider will spend on take-off will be reduced. At the same time, the principle of two-stage flight allows the use of powerful engines installed on the overturned upper stage.
Also, the concept of suborbital flights, which is even more technically complex and & nbsp; expensive, is gaining popularity. Recall a number of recently thundered projects all over the world from the United States: these are Jeff Bezos with his vertical lap that jumps up to 80-90 km, and Branson with a rocket plane for tourist departures to & nbsp; 100 & nbsp; km with & nbsp; 10 minutes in zero gravity … The furthest went Elon Musk with & nbsp; taking off vertically and & nbsp; while implementing a once landing STARSHIP rocket. But & nbsp; for suborbital flights, it is necessary to solve many problems, & nbsp; mainly related to & nbsp; Powerful hypersonic motor running reliably, with thermal protection and l & nbsp; safe entry, and & nbsp; also when braking in & nbsp; atmosphere and & nbsp; reliable landing. In & nbsp; Russia, the hypersound is still in use for military projects.
It is obvious that & nbsp; stratoplanes will only be available to people with a & nbsp; heavy wallet or state & mdash; perform operations for & nbsp; rescue people.
Source:
ria.ru