The Business Plan has 3 Stages:
Stage 1:
Testing of a ramjet-powered vehicle to establish altitude and velocity limits for its operation under the aegis of the Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Swansea University (Dr Zoran Jelic)
Stage 2 at Machrihanish Airport, Campeltown, Scotland:
This is the full-scale operation using the 3km long taxiway there.
STAGE 2 COMPRISES:
- A linear motor launch track on the taxiway; a delta-winged space-plane, the Swala OSV, mounted on a carriage on this track
- A ramjet under each wing, to take it to +/- 30km and perhaps as much as Mach 5
- The ramjets are detachable and are parachuted back into the sea (as with the Space Shuttle solid fuel boosters)
- A solid fuel main motor to take it to low earth orbit and cold gas or hydrazine thrusters for precise positioning as used on the International Space Station
- The payload being placed into orbit
- Re-entry drawing on space shuttle experience, but probably using high temperature alloys in place of heat shielding because of the vehicle’s low ballistic coefficient
- Landing by gliding back onto the launch or similar carriage speeding down the linear motor track, using systems developed for autonomous landings on aircraft carriers.
Stage 3 – Flotation of Swala Aerospace plc
Possible Key Financials
Construction cost:
about £90m
Construction and commissioning:
18 to 24 months
Payload mass:
500kg
Cost per launch:
about £.5m depending on the market, with a $3 000 payload charge
(about half the current cost).
The IRR
could be >30% over the first ten years.