Theoretically it's almost possible Smile almost. Theoretical top speed for scramjet is ~25000km which is less the low orbit 28000 by 3000km/h
Well obviously getting to 25Kkm/h by scramjet will save massively on fuel weight because it means you don't need to carry three times the weight of your fuel in oxygen to get to that speed.
As I said a combined rocket scramjet you could get to the theoretical 25Kkm/h and then start injecting oxygen into the scramjet, essentially making it a rocket for the last acceleration to orbital speed and then shutdown.
Once in orbit you shut down the rocket/scramjet and use an ion engine to accelerate to any speed you want.
Can you use a carrier plane? sure you can but there's no working solution so far...I guess there are reasons why.
At the moment the options are limited... the An-124 has been proposed for all sorts of rockets and the An-225 would be useful, but as they are designing and building new heavy transports around the PD-35 engines the Slon aircraft modified with an H tail for large bulky loads on its back would be ideal to carry a small shuttle with a large fuel tank... the shuttle wont need to be as heavy as the Buran at about 110 tons and with a rocket scramjet instead of just a rocket it would only need a fraction of the weight of fuel.
Later a scramjet powered platform can be developed to accelerate to much higher altitudes and flight speeds for release.
Can you build a hybrid system with scramjet rocket and ion engines? you can but but probability of failure is so high that none is even considering it in practice. Perhaps in the future when technology advances?
If the US had working scramjets of course they would be working on it, but they don't.
A combination of Scramjets and Ion engines will be the future of space access... a carrier aircraft to get it airborne or a rocket with wings to return to an airfield after launch and then a scramjet to near orbital speed and then slush hydrogen fuel pumped into the scramjet for the last little push to get into orbit... once in orbit and out of the atmosphere then an ion engine would be the most efficient way to move around... if not particularly fast... very efficient.
The problem I see however is that while such could be a good low-cost launcher for small to medium payloads, development costs would be high, given that its essentially a hypersonic manned bomber with a satellite launcher on its back.
Who doesn't want to travel from Russia to South America in three hours?
Scramjets are jet engines and should not be as one use and fuel expensive as a rocket.
Up until recently the problem was we were using ramjets and not scramjets so the upper speed limits were mach 4 to mach 5 for the carrier platform.
With mature scramjet motors you can scale them up like jet engines and in terms of fuel demand they are probably more than a turbojet, but vastly less than a rocket and that increased fuel burn is countered by the fact that you are moving much much faster so the cost per km is probably not going to be too bad... probably Tu-144 to start with, but could come down... certainly Tu-144 like planes would become more affordable too... for shorter hops like one side of Russia to the other.
Can you build a hybrid system with scramjet rocket and ion engines? you can but but probability of failure is so high that none is even considering it in practice. Perhaps in the future when technology advances?
The core necessary technology is the scramjet, which they have obviously worked out for little missiles... how that translates to a larger platform and all the heat issues that creates is another matter.
Essentially supersonic flight needed the Turbojet, but eventually the low bypass Turbofan and indeed the ramjet made it affordable for military aircraft.
Scramjets will make supersonic flight affordable for civilian aircraft and commercial aircraft and will be a huge step forward for space access.
Converting space ports into big airports opens up more options and needing rather less liquid oxygen per litre of propellent makes things safer... if not safe.
Home
Latest images
Register
Log in
)
lancelot
almost. Theoretical top speed for scramjet is ~25000km which is less the low orbit 28000 by 3000km/h 
