George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced that Reaction Engines Ltd has been awarded £60M ($91M) in technology infrastructure funding as part of the 2013 Comprehensive Spending Review. The Government has identified a number of key science and technology infrastructure projects to support in an effort to drive economic growth, and the Synergistic Air Breathing Rocket Engine, a key component of the Skylon single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane, was singled out.

Although the specific amount did not appear in the initial CSR documents, Osborne tweeted his personal support for the project and indicated the size of the award.

Just seen SABRE -a rocket engine that cools air from 1000 degrees to -150 in fraction of a second.We're backing the future with £60m funding — George Osborne (@George_Osborne) June 27, 2013

George Osborne on #Sabre "This jet engine is the real cutting-edge of tech and it's something we need to get behind" pic.twitter.com/M9QgPWfrSY — Jonathan Amos (@BBCAmos) June 27, 2013

Rocketeer comments: Er. Wow. Congratulations to all concerned! £60M isn't full Phase 3 (they're about £140M short), but it's a decent chunk of change and they should be able to make some good progress. Hopefully, government recognition as a key UK tech infrastructure project should also help with securing commercial funding.

More thoughts to follow. I'll leave this pinned for the time being.