About Reaction Engines:
Reaction Engines Limited (‘Reaction Engines’) is a privately held, growing, company based in Culham, Oxfordshire, UK. It employs over 100 people, many of whom are aerospace engineers and apprentices. It was founded in 1989 to develop the technologies needed for an advanced combined cycle air-breathing rocket engine class called SABRE™ (Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine) which is a leading contender for the next generation of hypersonic flight and space access vehicles.
SABRE is an innovative new class of aerospace propulsion that has the potential to provide efficient air-breathing thrust from standstill on the runway to speeds above five times the speed of sound in the atmosphere. A SABRE engine can then transition to a rocket mode of operation, allowing spaceflight at up to orbital velocity, equivalent to twenty five times the speed of sound. Through its ability to ‘breathe’ air from the atmosphere, SABRE offers a significant reduction in propellant consumption and weight compared to conventional rocket engines which have to carry their own oxygen.
Ground test and development programme
There are three core building blocks to the SABRE engine technology, the pre-cooler, the engine core and the thrust chamber. Each of these systems can be developed and validated using ground based demonstrations which saves cost and time relative to flight test, a design feature that benefitted the development of the piston/propeller and jet engine. Reaction Engines plan to mature each of these independently over the next four years, with a high temperature test of the pre cooler planned early 2018.
Investment
Reaction Engines has received significant capital from private investors and public funding, which will support its transition from a successful research phase into development and testing of the engine. In 2013, the UK Government announced a £60m commitment to aid preparations for the design, manufacture and testing of a SABRE demonstrator engine. In 2015, the Company announced that BAE Systems had made a strategic investment in the company and committed to a working collaboration to accelerate the development of the engine.
Orbital Launch Vehicles
As a step change in propulsion, SABRE-class engines have the potential to truly revolutionise the space launch industry.
The high efficiency of a SABRE engine and the elimination of the need to carry on-board oxidizer during air-breathing flight segments, enable the development of single stage or two stage space launch system with aircraft-like horizontal take-off and landing operations, resulting in lower cost infrastructure, and mission timelines while increasing responsiveness and system reusability. In addition, SABRE powered launch vehicles can be designed with the ability to abort their mission and return to base- an attribute that will drive significant improvements in the reliability of space launch
Hypersonic Mission Applications
The SABRE-class is capable of achieving air-breathing flight from Mach 0 to Mach 5+ as a single propulsion installation and is well suited for a variety of potential high-speed mission areas. SABRE enables more capable high-speed vehicles to be designed and the engine’s rocket mode adds the additional flexibility to increase thrust or transition to sub-orbital flight.
Hypersonic Transport
SABRE-class engines have the potential to make the world smaller through high-speed point-to-point transport. To demonstrate the uses for SABRE engine technology in Mach 5 cruise applications, Reaction Engines engaged in a 50% EU-funded project as part of Framework 6, called LAPCAT — Long-term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologies. This study examined the technologies required to reduce long-distance flights, e.g. From Brussels to Sydney, to just over 4 hours while cruising at Mach 5.
Other applications
Reaction Engines heat exchanger technology has the potential to revolutionise the approach to thermal management across a range of industries, from aerospace to motorsport, industrial processes, and the energy sector.
