Reaction Engines

The UK government has invested £60 million into a next-generation engine that -- its makers claim -- will make low-cost space travel possible for commercial customers.

Reaction Engines' 'Sabre' engine is a hybrid rocket and jet propulsion system, which theoretically enables travel anywhere on Earth in four hours or less. It could also slash the cost of launching satellites into orbit, once it gets off the ground.


That achievement is still at least a decade away, but the UK is not alone in its confidence that Sabre will have a big future. Alongside the government's investment, BAE Systems has also announced it will purchase 20 percent of the company, for an investment of £20.6 million.

BAE and Reaction will form a "working partnership" that the company said will "draw on BAE Systems’ extensive aerospace technology development and project management expertise and will provide Reaction Engines with access to critical industrial, technical and capital resources to progress towards the demonstration of a ground based engine".

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Based at Culham Science Centre in Oxfordshire, the company has been called a "potential game-changer" by ministers since at least 2012, following a positive appraisal by the UK Space Agency in 2010.

The system is by no means ready for launch just yet: current projections would see a full ground-based engine test ready by 2020 with even unmanned test flights a full ten years away.


This partnership will strengthen both organisations -- helping to create more jobs in the UK’s growing space sector and ultimately to make the Sabre engine a reality. Science minister Jo Johnson MP

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.

Reaction Engines

Mark Thomas, managing director at Reaction Engines, said the news marked an "important landmark in the transition of Reaction Engines from a company that has been focused on the research and testing of enabling technologies for the Sabre engine to one that is now focused on the development and testing of the world’s first Sabre engine".

Reaction Engines


"BAE Systems brings industry leading capabilities in programme delivery and wider engineering systems integration that will accelerate the development of SABRE as a new engine class and its vehicle applications."

The government's £60 million grant will also help transition the company from research to testing and eventual commercial applications, the company said.

Jo Johnson MP, who is minister for science, the funding "reflects the strength of British engineering and technology and our ambitions as a leading space nation. I am sure that this partnership will strengthen both organisations -- helping to create more jobs in the UK’s growing space sector and ultimately to make the Sabre engine a reality."