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New: Hot-Jet Internal-Combustion Propulsion!
Jet propulsion is a kind of 'rocket' propulsion that collects and uses the air in front of the vehicle as part of the fuel to be mixed for acceleration, or expanded hot as direct propulsion, and the combination of these. Almost all jet systems cannot start on their own and need a launch-pad or assisted shoot.
There are many airbreathing propulsion systems, with different ratios of front compression or internal expansion or exhaust pipe, for different atmosphere densities and travel speeds. Some models are with a front fan to aid injection into the burning stage, mostly at lower speeds. Some are with a back turbine that help maintain pressure and draws some exhaust energy. Some burn fuel and air directly at supersonic speeds. Some are aided by electromagnetic fields and plasma stages. Some have pulse combustion so to shoot back all of the pressure with a temporarily closed front jet. Some are pre-cooled to extend use before heat degradation. Some have an afterburner stage that heats burnt gases for faster exhaustion. Some even guide part of the incoming compressed air into mechanisms inside to cool sensitive areas and dynamically respond to pressure changes eg. in turbulence. Generally jet systems have their efficiency of fuel above 5x the speed of sound, but air drag increases fast so they all reach maximum efficiency eventually.
Proposing here: extremely hot internal combustion, diffused to the expansion chamber, and jet propulsion with the expanding air passing through and heating.
In 1958, during the Cold War, the United States designed and ground-tested a nuclear-powered ramjet called Project Pluto. This system, intended for use in a cruise missile, used no combustion. Instead heating was achieved via a high-temperature unshielded nuclear reactor. It could fly at supersonic speeds for months. Although the exhaust itself wasn't radioactive, the engine radiated dangerously for anyone near the flight path. The project was ultimately cancelled because ICBMs seemed to serve the purpose better, and a trigger-ready collection of supersonic bombs was very bad for diplomacy.
In 2008 Anthony Stark presented a similar jet-propulsion technology, heated by electricity for the very short duration of the trip, shot forth just heated and supercharged from a portable carrier, very lightweight and fast for the 'usable mass' brought to nearby explosive destination.
On March 1 2018 President Vladimir Putin announced Russia had developed a nuclear powered ramjet cruise missile with shielded engine capable of extended long range flight.
Jet fuel shot away can only reach 'some' of the temperature it can burn in, nowhere near the maximum. If instead it is maintained within the engine itself it can reach a greater temperature difference and it can do more work when this heat is fully used expanding the incoming air jet.
If fuel can comfortably burn inside the engine, it does not need to ignite and fully combust at high speeds within the chambers and the exhaust pipe limits. Although much higher temperatures can be achieved for the same fuel, alternative fuels should be used for this engine. These fuels, compared to regular jet engine fuels, would be easier to contain too, resulting in even more useful weight brought up each trip. Extra heat from the extremely hot efficient burning can be easily spread to the whole air-heating chamber of the jet engine.
It needs materials that withstand heat plenty, but not anything more fancy than handling radiation heat. The construct materials can be metal alloys and engineered ceramics. This hot-jet internal-combustion engine can be reused easily once it parachutes back to the ground safely after having delivered its payload beyond atmosphere.
Accelerate the vehicle that uses this engine up in a tower or mountain side, or from undersea or from underground, or pull it like a kite until it reaches enough speed, (or the more conventional pre-ignition acceleration methods), then release it fully operating already hot. This CAN reach orbit or an orbital tether in a single stage.
Thrust to weight ratio should be better than any other airbreathing methods of similar range (and worse than rockets). Thrust may be great, but any jet engine has air drag penalty, worse the higher the speed, compared to rockets that tear atmosphere apart because having all their fuel and oxidizer inside. Electrical heating of the jet is excluded from this comparison due to its short range.
Compared to turbojet, ramjet or scramjet engines, internal combustion can be controlled much easier in midflight in response to air pressure and speed for a changing altitude or for unpredictable turbulence, than changing the shape of the intake, or blade speed/angle for the input or output jet turbine. This easy flexibility is an advantage over the radioactive heating jet engines, and is only surpassed by even finer and faster control in direct electric heating in Stark's jet engine.
Electrical-heating is limited in maximum range by charge capacity, but the heating apparatus is much smaller, without moving parts, and can be implanted in bullet-like engines that compare to a similar big engine in speed, efficiency and range, qualities that neither hot-air jets nor any other variant of airbreathing engines, including the proposed one, can come close to matching. Electrical-heating jet engines can be laser-assisted from the ground or another aircraft. Laser assisting is being planned for far interplanetary and close interstellar travel, where even the sun can't reach, so, doing it to atmospheric crafts is trivial by comparison, especially if it needs to just heat the jet. It is merely direct transformation to heat upon reception, or even direct heating, rather than complex transformations into electrical and magnetic fields to accelerate ions/plasma/etc in interplanetary or interstellar spacecrafts. With easy laser assist, electrical heating may be a supplement to the internal combustion jet engine, matching the operation principle while being lightweight and not too intrusive. Without laser assist enough batteries for the trip would not be weight-optimal, but, for orbital jumps, the batteries don't need to return to Earth. Since space travel would need plenty of batteries, the hot engine should use a combination of electrical and internal fuel combustion methods with or without laser assist.
Do you know any jet engineers in positions of power and choice? Can you tell them directly about this idea? And, Rem/Lik/Sub/Chat/Wir#FUR/Mor, so they may find this indirectly.
Earth as a whole is electrically positively charged compared to space.
Earth's surface is negatively charged due to electrons repelling each other while still mostly attracted to proton-rich Earth.
Proposing: charging any tower insulated at base with even more negative electric charge so to repel itself and hold erect under temporary over-reach strain, like when shooting a train passengers up.
Proposing: this train can be aided traveling up by the gradient of electron distribution as an alternative to rockets. The train needs to neutralize its initial electric charge when the drag from emergent local electric fields becomes more than the gain from electron repulsion, and flip to be attracted to space when reaching that altitude.
Proposing: stratosphere-space station traveling to receive such train. The station should be charged positively to be attracted to negatively charged space, in fast orbit with minimal atmosphere resistance, and extend down a long hook ready to cling a negatively charged attractive tip to the incoming train. Once hooked, the train can be pulled and accelerated forth in the thinner atmosphere.
Proposing: instead of a geostationary and straight down space elevator, any orbital stable station can receive space passengers via a space hook. Many such stations should be more feasible and safer than one huge space elevator. Places to rest waiting the next train in and out of the planet, at different orbits and harmonics between them, with rush hours and leisure travel through times.
Rem/Lik/Sub/Chat/Wire for more.
https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1224267066658365440
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More from Virtualstan Leejohn Conwayverse
repeatReminded by Virtualstan Leejohn Conwayverse
I exist therefore I keep thinking. Never stop existing! #Minds Rem/Lik/Sub/Çat/Wir#FUR/Mor #FractalUniverseRevolution, Running,, Flying, on #Minds substrate!
Acquired Immune Deficiency Infirmity, #AIDI, aka the superpower to die of a cough or scratch without medical assistance, is the combined side-effects of Earth's collective fighting methods against COVID-19, especially the indiscriminate rushed vaccines, but also extreme clean practices, lockdowns, masks, and subjugation.
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Matches, tools for starting a fire, are made of small wooden sticks or stiff paper with one end coated with a material that can be ignited by friction.
Rem/Lik/Sub/Chat/Wir#FUR/Mor
The #FractalUniverseRevolution is Unstoppable!
More from Virtualstan Leejohn Conwayverse
repeatReminded by Virtualstan Leejohn Conwayverse
I exist therefore I keep thinking. Never stop existing! #Minds Rem/Lik/Sub/Çat/Wir#FUR/Mor #FractalUniverseRevolution, Running,, Flying, on #Minds substrate!
Acquired Immune Deficiency Infirmity, #AIDI, aka the superpower to die of a cough or scratch without medical assistance, is the combined side-effects of Earth's collective fighting methods against COVID-19, especially the indiscriminate rushed vaccines, but also extreme clean practices, lockdowns, masks, and subjugation.
You may also want to see:
Tar, a dark brown or black viscous liquid of hydrocarbons obtained from a wide variety of organic materials.
Feathers, skin growths that form a distinctive outer covering or plumage on birds.
Matches, tools for starting a fire, are made of small wooden sticks or stiff paper with one end coated with a material that can be ignited by friction.
Rem/Lik/Sub/Chat/Wir#FUR/Mor
The #FractalUniverseRevolution is Unstoppable!
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