(Source: Reaction Engines)

Reaction Engines have posted their latest monthly update:

• REL at Farnborough 2010
• REL received press coverage in the Independent and the Register
• Alan Bond, Managing Director of REL, was awarded with an Honorary Doctorate in Engineering by the University of Bristol
• REL played host to an event by the Association of Aerospace Universities

(Source: The Register)

The Register interviewed Reaction Engines representatives at their exhibit at the Farnborough International Airshow this week about their Skylon SSTO project. Highlights include:

• SABRE engine pre-cooler technology validation is in progress
• German space agency DLR (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt) will test the novel air- or oxygen-cooled combustion chamber.
• Technical director Richard Varvill expects that "the powers that be will ask us to build a complete test engine". Complete engine could be in tests within "three to four years".
• Merchant banks are showing interest in investment

Read article...

A Youtube version of the Skylon passenger & logistics module movie highlighted in an earlier report:

Reaction Engines has uploaded its latest monthly update.

• Skylon D1 design update
• DLR reports on Skylon re-entry modelling
• STERN movie documentary
• REL at Farnborough International Airshow 2010

The Reaction Engines website has a brief movie on the Skylon Personnel and Logistics Module, narrated by Brian Blessed.

The April 2010 update from Reaction Engines is now online.

• Skylon D1 update
• Liquid Oxygen-cooled Combustion Chamber Test Firing
• Brian Blessed returns to Abingdon
• RAeS Annual Conference
• Aerospace and Defence KTN Conference
• 1st Canary firing: Airborne Engineering test-fires hybrid motor for Canary sounding rocket

Reaction Engines have redesigned the layout of their website and posted a news update for March 2010.

(Source: Reaction Engines)

Company News

The D1 redesign of SKYLON is progressing well. The preliminary trajectory analysis has been fed into a preliminary configuration analysis to establish how the vehicle will be trimmed in aerodynamic flight. This is the start of an iterative cycle of performance analysis and configuration definition with increasing refinement and detail which will lead to the final D1 definition.

Work has started on the payload provision based on the interfaces proposed in Revision 1 of the SKYLON Users’ Manual. The public consultation produced no suggestions for any changes whatsoever (which was a bit of a surprise) so as a consequence those interfaces are now being worked into the D1 vehicle design.

Work also started on defining D1’s Auxiliary Propulsion System. This system performs many functions on SKYLON; orbit manoeuvring, reaction control, the supply reactants to both the fuel cells and hydraulic power unit, and heat absorption during re-entry. As part of this work, Lolan Naicker of Cranfield University will conduct a postgraduate research project as part of his MSc Astronautics and Space Engineering looking at the SOMA engine which provides SKYLON’s orbit manoeuvring propulsion.

The first firm results from the Reaction Engines trade mission to the USA (as reported last month) came in February with the placing of a small study contract with the Physical Science Laboratory at the New Mexico State University. NMSU will be undertaking a preliminary evaluation of the requirements that SKYLON D1 will need to meet for safe autonomous flight based on their extensive heritage with unmanned flight vehicles, their expert knowledge of the US National Airspace System, and their expertise and experience in the Global Airspace System.

General News

On 10th February at the QEII Conference Centre in London, the Space Innovation and Growth Team (Space IGT) released a report by the Space industry to advise Government on future Space policy. REL contributed to the report entitled ‘A UK Space Innovation and Growth Strategy 2010 – 2030’ and had a small exhibition stand in the foyer at the opening. SKYLON featured in the promotional movie as seen on the BNSC website.

(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.