Reaction Engines Limited

A Brief History of Reaction Engines Limited

Alan Bond (Managing Director) began work on spaceplane engines in 1982 with a view to overcoming the inadequate characteristics of existing rocket-based expendable launch systems. This work culminated in the patenting of a new type of engine employing a novel thermodynamic cycle, whose characteristics were specifically tailored to the requirements of a single stage to orbit spaceplane.

The emergence of this new engine coincided with studies being conducted at British Aerospace on future reusable launch vehicles. Within the context of this work, the studies, when evaluated, proved far superior to alternatives and provided the impetus to initiate the joint BAe/Rolls Royce HOTOL project in 1985. The engine was designated the RB545 following purchase of the patent rights by Rolls Royce on the undertaking that they would turn the concept into reality.

BAe/RR HOTOL spaceplane

The project was supported by approximately £2M of UK government money and together with internal contributions from the industrial partners continued successfully until 1988 at which point the UK government declined further investment. Rolls Royce subsequently made a strategic decision to withdraw from the hypersonic and launcher propulsion field to concentrate their efforts on gas turbine and turbofan design.

It was in these circumstances that capitalising on the insight gained in the course of the HOTOL work Bond began studies to devise an engine cycle superior to the original, which was not covered by the patents held by Rolls Royce. This engine eventually evolved into the SABRE engine on SKYLON. In the light of this development and in order to prevent the loss of the technology created during the HOTOL project, Reaction Engines Ltd was formed in August 1989 by Bond and the principal two engineers from Rolls Royce behind the RB545 programme, John Scott-Scott and Richard Varvill.

From 1989-2000, Reaction Engines devoted its resources to producing a robust technical design for SKYLON and its SABRE engines while formulating a practical strategy to bring them into commercial production. The knowledge of the directors, their experience from the HOTOL studies and the huge advances in computers over the past decade, made the demanding task of the preliminary design of SKYLON addressable by a small, but highly expert team. In the past this would have been the remit of a large design group in a major aerospace company.

RR RZ20 LOx/LH2 rocket firing

Although the preliminary design phase of SKYLON was largely complete by 1995, the company continued to deepen the technical and economic aspects of the project. To this end, the company initiated a "Supportive Investigations" programme of laboratory work to underpin its innovative designs. This work involved AEA Technology and Bristol, Kingston and York Universities, in the areas of aerothermodynamics, propulsion, structures and control technology.

Paul Portelli – 1943-2007
Paul was the first major investor in Reaction Engines Ltd, which enabled the company to start its practical research and development programme at Culham in 2001. He was an aviation enthusiast with a collection of several historic aircraft and a Co-Director of Classic Aero Engineering Ltd, a Company involved in the renovation of classic aircraft. He was our Non-Executive Director of Communications.				On behalf of the late Paul Portelli, Tony and Dominic, his brother and nephew, accepted a company tankard to celebrate the ESA award allocation in 2007.

At Culham Science Centre, the company embarked upon an intensive programme of research to demonstrate the heat exchanger technology crucial to the SABRE engine concept. The first part of this programme (frost control technology) is now complete whilst the second part (manufacturing technology) is ongoing. Reaction Engines constructed a test site (B9) to demonstrate the pre-cooler technology. This will entail operating a pre-cooler in conjunction with a Viper jet engine. The Company continues to explore alternative outlets for its technology and to this end is currently engaged in a 3 year study for the EU (LAPCAT) to investigate the feasibility of an antipodal hypersonic civil transport.

In February 2009, Reaction Engines Ltd was awarded €1m Euros by the European Space Agency (ESA) through the British National Space Centre (BNSC) to undertake a joint public and private multi-million pound development programme. This programme will demonstrate the core technologies for the SABRE air-breathing rocket engine destined to power the SKYLON spaceplane. Lord Drayson, Minister for Science and Innovation, said:

“This is an example of a British company developing world beating technology with exciting consequences for the future of space. It is fantastic that Reaction Engines, the British National Space Centre and ESA have successfully secured this public-private partnership arrangement and I look forward to seeing how the project progresses.”

The demonstration programme has the objective of removing all of the outstanding technical concerns on the SABRE engine. This will pave the way to a full engine development programme as part of the overall progression of SKYLON.

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