There are reports that a third batch of China’s WS-15 turbofans has been delivered with performance better than US F135. This would mean that China has achieved the goal of about 197 kilonewtons (44,000 lbf) of thrust with an afterburner.
A few months ago SpaceX and Elon Musk were going to only make one version of the new Raptor engine for initial tests and flights but now Elon tweets that a vacuum optimized Raptor engine could be ready earlier.
Elon Musk has tweeted that Tesla will make a quiet electric leaf blower.
Agile Propulsion engines are well suited for lunar and planetary landers and upper stages. The lower temperature propellant would be good for sample return from the moon. #SpaceAccess2019
Sandy Munro of Munro & Associates talks more about Tesla car technology, future plans and what Tesla is doing in China. Munro specializes in design for manufacturability and gets paid to tear down cars to find ways to improve costs, quality, design and manufacturing. At 13.5 minutes Sandy says that Tesla is reducing the wiring …
Reaction Engines is working towards air-breathing space planes and hypersonic airplanes. They have successfully tested their critical pre-cooler technology at the temperature conditions it would experience at 3.3 times the speed of sound. The pre-cooler quickly drops the temperature of the air so that the engines for a space plane or hypersonic vehicle would not …
Researchers have used an ensemble of NV− centers in diamond for implementing different types of quantum heat engines. They have used these to demonstrate the equivalence of the power output of two different engine types, continuous and two-stroke, for small actions. Additionally, they have shown that, for very small actions, the engines produce more power …
Elon Musk tweeted out the test firings of the new raptor engines. pic.twitter.com/ChEGbjTGKZ — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 4, 2019 pic.twitter.com/yFhNx3fiOD — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 4, 2019 First firing of Starship Raptor flight engine! So proud of great work by @SpaceX team!! pic.twitter.com/S6aT7Jih4S — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 4, 2019 Brian WangBrian Wang is …
Elon Musk is in Texas for the test firing of the Raptor Engine that will be used on the Starhopper test vehicle. There has been over 1200 seconds of testing over two years on previous versions of the Raptor engine. The new raptor engine has been radically redesigned. Raptor is a staged combustion, methane-fueled rocket …
Elon Musk has tweeted that the first orbital Starship upper stage prototype should be completed by June 2019. He has stated that the Super Heavy first stage will start construction in the spring. Previously, Elon Musk has targeted the Super Heavy Starship to reach orbit by 2020. Elon has said the odds of making it …
China’s J-10 fighter has been upgraded with thrust vectoring controls. This allows for better aerial movement. The J-10 is a copy of the American F-16. The Chinese J-10 was built with Israeli assistance from Israel’s F-16-based Lavi fighter. It is about fifteen years behind the F-16 platform and much further behind the F-35 stealth fighter. …
