FOX on Tech: UK Firm Developing Space Plane


What do you get if you cross an airplane with a space rocket?  A British company believes they can come up with a major travel breakthrough.

FOX News Radio’s Simon Owen reports from London:

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FOX on Tech.

They claim it’s the biggest engine advance since the jet.  The British firm, called Reaction, is developing an engine that would allow an aircraft to operate like a normal plane in the Earth’s atmosphere, and then a rocket when in space.  The technology could mean flights to any point on Earth in a maximum four hours, and potentially the world’s first reusable space plane.

One key component they’ve already built is a heat exchanger able to cool air from 1,000 degrees Celsius to -150 degrees in one-hundredth of a second.  The firm is now looking to raise $400 million to fund the next phase of development.  They hope to have an engine ready for sale within a decade.

In London, Simon Owen, FOX News Radio.