Reaction Engines Folds After Funding Shortfall

COLORADO SPRINGS—Reaction Engines, the UK-U.S.-based pioneer of hypersonic propulsion and thermal management systems, has been forced into closure after failing to raise around £20 million ($25.7 million) in additional funding.

The company’s collapse came after long-running attempts to secure a deal through the UAE’s Strategic Development Fund, the investment arm of the UAE’s Tawazun Council, fell through. According to Sky News, the negotiations failed after Reaction’s strategic shareholders BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce backed out of providing sufficient bridging capital.

The bulk of the company’s 200-plus staff were laid off in the UK by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the company appointed as administrators. In the U.S., Reaction Engines Inc. (REI) also ceased business operations immediately on Oct 31.

In a note to employees and customers, Adam Dissel, president of Colorado-based Reaction Engines Inc., said “this unfortunate outcome quickly became a reality following the recent surprise collapse of a hoped-for fundraising deal that we had worked toward for many months and had high confidence in closing. Both REI and REL have made every recovery effort over the last few days to secure additional funds to continue operations until potential contracts could land, but we have been unsuccessful.”

The failure of Reaction Engines, which was founded in 1989, likely represents a significant blow to the UK’s hopes of developing an indigenous hypersonic vehicle based on the company’s advanced precooler technology. Reaction’s collapse is also a major setback for Cranfield Aerospace Solutions, which planned to use a version of the same micro-tube heat exchanger design in a modified hydrogen fuel-cell powered Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander zero emissions demonstrator program.

Smaller versions of the company’s heat exchanger are also used by Mercedes-Benz, the automotive group which supplies four of Formula One’s racing car constructors with engines.

Originally targeted at the Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine (SABRE) hypersonic engine concept for space access, Reaction redirected its precooler work to ground and air applications as part of an increasingly urgent search for real-world applications.

Against these efforts, Reaction’s fundamental thermal management technology has proved highly successful in early test and development work. Most recently this included an evaluation of a fully integrated precooler at Mach 3.5 conditions last summer for the UK Royal Air Force’s reusable Hypersonic Air Vehicle Experimental (HVX) program, which was unveiled at the 2022 Farnborough Airshow. As well as Reaction, the HVX effort has involved Rolls-Royce, the RAF’s Rapid Capabilities Office, the UK government’s Defense Science and Technologies Laboratory and is supported by the UK National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF).

In 2019, under a DARPA contract, Reaction also evaluated a larger version of the HTX precooler at high-temperature airflow conditions in excess of 1,800F (1,000C)—equivalent to high-speed flight up to Mach 5. Efforts to follow up these tests with evaluations of the integrated inlet precooler with a turbine engine in the U.S. ultimately came to nothing.