(Source: Reaction Engines)

A small trade delegation from Reaction Engines toured the southern States of America at the end of January. The trip was organised by a United Kingdom Trade and Investment (UKTI) team based at the British Consulate in Houston. The trip included Louisiana, New Mexico and Texas and eight meetings making contact with fourteen companies and government organisations. There was considerable interest in SKYLON and many areas of possible cooperation are being explored further as a result. We would like to thank all our hosts for their very warm hospitality and to the UKTI for the superb organisation.

This trip is now even more significant after Barack Obama cancelled NASA’s Constellation programme which aimed to put astronauts on the Moon by 2020.

The team (left to right: Alan Bond REL, Mark Hempsell REL, Sam Hutchison REL, George Abbey Jr UKTI) at the Neutral Buoyancy Training Facility at NASA JSC, Houston.

REL started the D1 reconfiguration of SKYLON this month and the preliminary trajectory calculations have gone well.

During January the tank for the helium boiler inner spiral wound test coil was delivered. The heat transfer trials will commence in March.

The prototype manufacturing facility team has now performed a 100% inspection of almost 5000 tubes to detect any faults and flaws.

General News

REL welcomed Daniel Kent to the company this month. As Production Controller he will be based at the prototype manufacturing facility.

Rocketeer comments: Also covered by Hyperbola. Given the greater emphasis on commercial spaceflight and the increased opportunities for new technology development funding for launcher systems in Bolden's plans, this visit seems particularly timely. Best of luck to REL in any collaborations they may form. I expect that there will be a number of US companies very eager to get their hands on the airbreathing technology of the SABRE engine.