Have you noticed all the talk lately about countries building spaceports and new planes that are about to come out? It is beginning to look as if there is going to be a revolution in both space travel and civilian aircraft soon. Of course when I say soon, this is a relative term. Soon means anytime within the next 25 years or so. The launch of SpaceshipOne with the resulting win of the X Prize has spurred on the space tourism industry. At this very moment it is estimated that there are $700,000,000 dollars worth of travelers out there and many of them are holding tickets for their flight. These people not only need vehicles to fly, but they need spaceports, hotels and entertainment along with places to train. This has not escaped the watchful eye of mega businessman and billionaire Richard Branson. He plans to make the area in the Mojave Desert the new spaceport for tourists. That will mean that this area will have to be completely built up.

New Mexico is not the only place that will contain a civilian spaceport. These thing seem to have begun to sprout up in many other places. One of the contenders for the X Prize was Rocketplane Ltd. and TGV Rockets of Oklahoma. The companies plan to put in an application for an Oklahoma spaceport soon. They are taking orders for flights for next year and the price is slightly under $100,000. This is for a suborbital flight. I guess there must be a lot of money out there to throw away on a flight to nowhere, just so someone can say that they did it? I wonder if one was to construct a super expensive ride that would cost $100,000 a turn, if he would get the same people to go on it? Anyway back to the spaceports. Australia might be the next civilian site for a Russian spaceport, that a Russian company that has already launched a couple of civilians into space, wants to build. Russia is operating a civilian spaceport called the Balkonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. This is where paying customers have actually been launched into space already.

Many other spaceports are being planned in the U.S. So far the plans call for ones in Alaska, called the Kodiak Launch Complex, the one we spoke about in the Mojave dessert called the Mojave Airport. California Spaceport is another one along with the Southwest Regional Spaceport, Oklahoma Spaceport, Spaceport Florida and Virginia Spaceport. Canada is not going to be left out and is planning a spaceport in Nova Scotia. As you can see the spaceport race is on. This is very reminiscent of the original space race, but a lot more friendlier. We wouldn't have dared to ask to use Russian rockets for launches in those days, but today we do just that and we even use a Russian rocket engine is some of our rockets, because it is much more efficient. So where is all this leading to? There is no doubt in my mind that the real prize is going to other worlds. Can you imagine what some of these people would pay to be able to walk on the moon or set foot on Mars? It just might turn out that this civilian rocket aviation may someday be more efficient than the military program. SpaceshipOne has already demonstrated that a spaceship can be built for only $20,000,000 and actually work. Even more amazing is a spaceship that is being built from an old Lear Jet. It is said to only cost $2,000,000 and will be ready soon, this I've got to see.

So what kind of space flight do you get for you money? If we look at the Silver Dart, which is the rocket that PlanetSpace is thinking of using in Canada, we see a vehicle that was designed in 1962 by the U.S. space program. It has 28 rockets and can reach sub orbital heights and return to Earth. It will give the passenger a fifteen minute space flight. All this for a mere $250,000. You get 4.5 minutes of weightlessness.

Now everyone knows that we are pouring billions of dollars into military aircraft. Some of these craft are said to be capable of space flight. We have heard a lot of stories about different capabilities of different craft, but we can't be sure of any of this, because the craft are all top secret. Sometimes we only find out about them when their life span has finished. It is obvious that you can't have all this new aeronautical technology without some of it spilling over into the civilian section. As a matter of fact, military innovations may be said to be the biggest drivers of advancement in civilian aviation. A company has to know what advances are useful in the civilian sector and which ones are not. Take the case of the new giant Airbus planes. I think they are supposed to hold over 600 passengers. Boeing decided not to compete in this area and instead made a more fuel efficient average sized plane. The Airbus plane uses advanced engine technology along with new composite technology, but the plane is years behind schedule and will require airports to build all new gates to accommodate these giants. All the troubles that Airbus is having with the plane is causing customers to rethink their orders. Even though the technology was available, it apparently was never thoroughly studied to see if a plane could be built in a reasonable amount of time using this technology.

Silent Aircraft Initiative
Photo Source: Press Release Cambridge University

A new type of civilian airliner is on the drawing boards. It is called a Silent Aircraft. MIT and Cambridge University researchers have designed a plane that is quite different from the passenger planes of today. The first thing that one notices when they look at the plane is the wings seem to flow out of the body and there are no flaps. You know what flaps are, they are the end part of the wing that is raised up and down to assist with takeoffs and landings and for other reasons. It is not a huge plane, at least not in this design. It has space for about 215 passengers. and is about 25% more fuel efficient than today's planes. One just can't help noticing the resemblance to a stealth bomber. The three engines are mounted at the rear and seem to come out of the body of the plane with air intakes above the body. The body of the plane is very wide. The plane itself is said to be extremely quiet and can take off at much slower speeds reducing noise even further, thus the phrase Silent Aircraft Imitative.