Re: Skylon SSTO



Jochem Huhmann wrote:


I think it's really curious that all renderings of LAPCAT don't show any
windows, which is quite odd for passenger transport. When you compare
LAPCAT to Skylon (which is quite similar in overall layout) you will
immediately see the reason for that omission: Where do you put 300
passengers in a craft which is almost all fuel tanks? I guess they don't
know where to put them, too.

I think they are in the mid section over the wing, with LH2 tanks ahead of and behind them.
You can see the entry door over the wing in this drawing: http://www.reactionengines.co.uk/images/lapcat/library/hires/With_A380_Side_1280.jpg
The problem with windows would be weight - to take the temperatures the exterior will reach in flight, they might have to be made from quartz glass like on the SR-71, and the weight would be prohibitive.
The passengers would see outside via closed circuit TV... but I'm a little queasy about not having the crew being able to see outside except by television.
If there _is_ a crew... when this concept was played around with for HOTAL* the passengers were going to be put aboard in a pressurized cylinder, and the whole flight would be automated.
Yeah, I'd trust that.
Note that the three hundred people are going to board and depart via a single door (views from the far side show no door), and that this aircraft comes nowhere near meeting international standards for how fast its passengers can be evacuated in a emergency.
It's little details like that which hint that this team is a lot more about dreams than reality.
But big dreams are nothing new to small British aircraft firms; behold the mighty Saunders-Roe P.192 seaplane, lugging its 1,000 passengers around with its 24 Conway engines: http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a94/WtMiller/3c15450a.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a94/WtMiller/b27263df.jpg
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a94/WtMiller/scan0015.jpg

* Note correct spelling this time. ;-)

Pat
.

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