(until air is no longer available for the jet engines, of course.)
2006-08-22 12:10:47 · 13 answers · asked by Danny La Cuesta 1 in Cars & Transportation ➔ Aircraft
Jet engines can get you up pretty high, nearly to the edge of space in some cases. The SR-71 flew to over 80,000 feet on engines that were a combination of pure jet at lower altitudes and speeds and ramjet at high altitude and speed. From that point you would need a rocket engine to take over and carry you into space. So yes, it's entirely possible with modern technology.
2006-08-22 13:53:31 · answer #1 · answered by Bostonian In MO 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Just so no one is misguided by any previous answers, the X-15 was not a jet. It was a rocket. It was taken aloft by a jet aircraft. It was released at high altitude and propelled by rocket engines to an altitude that is commonly accepted as space. Jets need air. When there is little or none, jets will not work. Jets are only used to get spacecraft near space, not into it.
2006-08-22 23:30:13 · answer #2 · answered by Me again 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There has been some work done on hybrid engines, which would operate operate as a ramjet in the atmosphere and then be used as a pure rocket when there was no longer any oxygen to use. The most notable example was the British Aerospace HOTOL project.
The concept is not totally dead, as NASA are now experimenting with ramjets and 'scramjets'.
2006-08-23 10:20:48 · answer #3 · answered by AndyG45 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The problem with that design is that the turbine engines become dead weight after they run out of oxygen to burn a more realistic concept is to have the spacecraft hauled aloft by a "mother ship" like what Burt Rutan has done with Spaceship One and the White Knight. The "mother ship" releases the spacecraft and the spacecraft fires off its rockets to reach orbit
2006-08-22 19:20:55 · answer #4 · answered by CRJPILOT 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Jet engines can take you to the edge of space (like the X-15 in the 1960s) but then you need a method of propulsion that doesn't depend on ambient air.
That is why rocket fuel is a mixture of fuel and oxygen (usually liquid oxygen - LOX).
2006-08-22 19:16:11 · answer #5 · answered by Jay 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In order to obtain combustion you need fuel , oxygen, heat
Since there is no oxygen in space, a jet engines principle will not work. The reason rockets work is because oxygen is supplied in a liquid state. From tanks.
2006-08-22 19:21:43 · answer #6 · answered by gearinghead 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes. In fact it has been done.
Spaceship 1 was launched from a high flying airplane. The airplane used jets to bring the rocket to a high altitude. This makes the whole process more efficient because you don't need to carry as much oxidizing agent with you.
2006-08-22 19:14:55 · answer #7 · answered by professional student 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Pratt and Whitney jt8d was designed as a rocket motor and it is a jet engine this is the engine that is on the DC9 aircraft and MD80 and MD88
2006-08-24 02:27:11 · answer #8 · answered by gould1272 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The following are a few articles concerning ramjet as an alternative souce of power for space flight in near earth orbit. They are not in the order of most inforamative.
2006-08-22 19:20:52 · answer #9 · answered by Mr Cellophane 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no the air high up will not allow enough combustion for the engine because there is so little oxygen it wont get past the atmosphere unless there are on board oxygen tanks which is stupid because it will take up to much space and weight is another disadvantage
2006-08-22 19:18:00 · answer #10 · answered by jszipsp 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋