Bulletin: EU, European Space Agency Study

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EU, European Space Agency Study LH2-Fueled Hypersonic Transport Planes

PARIS/BRUSSELS October 25 – The idea of hydrogen-powered hypersonic airplane travel which got a lot of attention in the 1980s and early 1990s with Ronald Reagan’s “Orient Express”, the “National Aerospace Plane,” and Britain’s HOTOL concepts (The Hydrogen Letter, Jan. ‘92) is being revived by the European Union (EU) and the European Space Agency (ESA).

This week, European media report the EU has agreed to fund a second phase of ESA’s quaintly named LAPCAT (for Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologies) project that was due to end next spring. According to reports in “Flight International” and elsewhere, the EU has agreed to spend $14.2 million for LAPCAT II due to start next fall that will examine in greater detail the technology and prospects for a hydrogen-powered Mach 5-8 transport plane. LAPCAT’s investigators have concluded that hydrogen is the best fuel for such an airplane, according to the publication.

Apparently neither the EU nor ESA released any announcement about the new funding; at least nothing was found on their respective websites. The initial LAPCAT study which apparently didn’t get much attention, began in April 2005.

In practical terms, it means a hypersonic transport plane, with a range of 20,000 km, could whisk passengers from Brussels to Sydney, Australia, in about 2 to 4 hours.

One of the partners in the 11-member group is Britain’s Reaction Engines Limited, Oxfordshire, headed by Alan Bond as managing director. Bond was a consulting engineer for HOTOL. After setting up Reaction Engines in 1989, he guided the further evolution of the HOTOL’s engine concept. For LAPCAT, the company has developed the so-called Scimitar engine designed around existing gas turbine, rocket and subsonic ramjet technology for longer service life.

(A more detailed version of this report will appear in the upcoming November issue of “The Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Letter”)

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