Air Force Testing High-Mach Engine Technology.

• Author: Easley, Mikayla
• Position: DISPATCHES

ARLINGTON, Virginia--The Air Force is partnering with a U.K.-based aerospace company to test the limits of hypersonic-capable engines.

Reaction Engines and the Air Force Research Laboratory tested technology to simplify and improve the performance of high-Macb engines, the company announced recently. The tests were made possible through the Defense Department's Foreign Comparative Testing Program.

Tests focused on Reaction Engines' thermal management technology developed for the company's Syner-getic Air Breathing Rocket Engine, or SABRE, and how it can be adapted to other propulsion uses, said Reaction Engines President Adam Dissel.

SABRE uses oxygen in the atmosphere to burn fuel. The engine can enable flight at hypersonic speeds--defined as Mach 5 or higher--partly because of a pre-cooling thermal wrapper on the front, Dissel said.

"That device actually takes the air that's coming in the front of the engine and quenches it," he explained. "It takes it from literally air as hot as lava, 1,800 Fahrenheit, and drops it down to whatever temperature you want... so the engine can be used without melting."

SABRE is then able to extract the energy created from the large heat exchange and use it to further power the engine's propulsion...