The British jet engine that failed in the 'Valley of Death'

The British jet engine that failed in the 'Valley of Death' 56 minutes ago Share Save Michael Dempsey Technology Reporter Share Save Reaction Engines Reaction Engines hoped one day its tech would power a reusable space plane "It was going great until it fell apart." Richard Varvill recalls the emotional shock that hits home when a high-tech venture goes off the rails. The former chief technology officer speaks ruefully about his long career trying to bring a revolutionary aerospace engine to fruition at UK firm Reaction Engines. The origins of Reaction Engines go back to the Hotol project in the 1980s. This was a futuristic space plane that caught the public imagination with the prospect of a British aircraft flying beyond the atmosphere. The secret sauce of Hotol was heat exchanger technology, an attempt to cool the super-heated 1,000C air that enters an engine at hypersonic speeds. Without cooling this will melt aluminium, and is, Mr Varvill says, "literally too hot to handle". Fa ... Read full article.