Reaction Engines

A major player in aerospace innovation has bitten the dust. Reaction Engines, a developer of hypersonic engine technology since 1989, has gone into administration and its closure is having an impact on the hypersonic weapons program of Britain and others.

Reaction Engines has built a precooler for its SABRE engine that can chill a hypersonic airstream from 1,000 °C to -150 °C in 1/20th of a second. Now it's doing tests with the USAF and DoD to prove it can upgrade other existing jets to handle Mach 4.

The UK's Reaction Engines has announced the details of a joint venture to create its compact, lightweight ammonia reactor intended to decarbonize difficult sectors like shipping and off-grid energy generation – and surprisingly, also aviation.

Reaction Engines and Britain's Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) have completed a concept study into the practicality of using ammonia as a sustainable, low-emission jet aviation fuel.

Hypersonic travel, and even a new type of orbital launcher, has come closer to reality after Boeing and Rolls-Royce today announced substantial investments in the British advanced propulsion systems company Reaction Engines Limited.

Reaction Engines Ltd. announced on Wednesday the completion of a critical round of testing of its SABRE engine’s precooler system.

Reaction Engines has announced that is has successfully tested the key pre-cooler component of its revolutionary SABRE engine crucial to the development of its SKYLON spaceplane.

A technical review of the Skylon, an unpiloted, single-stage, reusable spaceplane, carried out by the European Space Agency (ESA) concluded there are "no impediments" that would prevent the continued development of the Skylon and its SABRE engine.

August 30, 2007 Imagine long-distance air-travel that could get you to the other side of the globe in less than a quarter of the time it presently takes? Well,