Reaction Engines | Behind The Black

Tag Archives: Reaction Engines

ESA contract for hypersonic engine research

July 13, 2016 at 8:52 am Robert Zimmerman Points of Information

The competition heats up: The European Space Agency has signed a research contract for 10 million euros with Reaction Engines to build a ground-based prototype of its hypersonic rocket engine.

While ground testing is always necessary, I am not sure what they gain by building a solely ground-based prototype. Hypersonic engines use the oxygen in the atmosphere, much like jet engines. Their operation however is dependent on altitude as well as the speed in which they are traveling, neither of which is easily tested on the ground.

This project is also one part of the United Kingdom’s new space agency program.

One comment commercial, competition, engineering, ESA, European Space Agency, hypersonic engine, Reaction Engines, SABRE, spaceflight, United Kingdom

British spaceplane concept gets infusion of cash

November 2, 2015 at 9:38 am Robert Zimmerman Points of Information

The competition heats up: Reaction Engines, the British company developing a hybrid air-breathing rocket engine, today received obtained a significant funding boost from a new private partner as well as the British government.

The government has committed $60 million, while BAE has purchased 20% of the company with a commitment of an additional $20 million.

The craft Reaction Engines intends to eventually produce, known as Skylon, depends on the ability to cool an incoming airstream from 1,000 degrees C to minus 150 C almost instantly, at close to 1/100th of a second. That process doubles the technical limits of a jet engine, and would enable the craft to reach extremely fast speeds in Earth’s atmosphere, up to give times the speed of sound, before switching to a rocket engine to reach orbit.

Don’t start buying tickets however. They don’t expect to begin manned test flights for at least a decade

2 comments BAE, capitalism, commercial, competition, engineering, government, Reaction Engines, SABRE, Skylon, spaceflight, United Kingdom