If you hate long-haul flights, we’ve got some good news for you.
An aerospace company has received over £80 million to build a space plane that travels at 25 times the speed of sound.
Reaction Engines, a small company based in Oxfordshire, hopes to use the funding to build Skylon, a super-fast airplane of the future.
If successful, RE claims the journey from London to Sydney could be reduced to just four hours.
That’s all thanks to the company’s SABRE engine, a revolutionary rocket engine that can power an aircraft directly into space.
So who’s funding this pioneering gambit? The UK Government has committed to granting a huge £60 million investment to boost development.
The remaining £20.6 million comes courtesy of aerospace giant BAE Systems.
BAE Systems will acquire 20% of Reaction Engine’s share capital and enter a “working partner relationship” as part of the agreement.
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Johnson continues: “I am sure that this partnership will strengthen both organisations – helping to create more jobs in the UK’s growing space sector and ultimately to make the SABRE engine a reality.”
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Reaction Engines and BAE Systems hope to complete a full-ground based test of the SABRE engine in 2020.
The Skylon plane itself is set for testing afterwards, although no exact timeframe has been given.
“Reaction Engines is a highly innovative UK company and our collaboration gives BAE Systems a strategic interest in a breakthrough air and space technology with significant future potential,” explains Nigel Whitehead, Group Managing Director, Programmes & Support, BAE Systems.
He adds: “Our partnership with Reaction Engines is part of our sustained commitment to investing in and developing prospective emerging technologies.”
Would you like to hop on board a super-fast space plane? Let us know in the comments.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.