Reaction Engines begins hypersonic propulsion technology testing under U.S. FCT contract

UK company Reaction Engines has begun a new testing campaign to expand the performance envelope of its high-Mach or hypersonic enabling technology through the Foreign Comparative Testing (FCT) Program at the U.S. Department of Defense, supported by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL).

The FCT Program is administered by the Directorate of Defense Research and Engineering for Advanced Capabilities and is focused on the discovery, assessment, and testing of leading foreign technology with the potential to satisfy U.S. Defense technical demands. The program seeks high Technology Readiness Level (TRL) technologies that could rapidly and economically satisfy current and emerging requirements.

The new test campaign, headed by subsidiary Reaction Engines US, aims to build upon the success of the previous HTX test program of the Reaction Precooler by significantly increasing the delivered air mass flow rate and other test parameters which will result in a three-fold increase in the total energy transfer through the engine heat exchanger.  The planned test points for the FCT tests were selected to be characteristic of the integration of Reaction Engines thermal management technology with state-of-the-art jet engines.

“The exciting outcome that I am looking forward to over the coming weeks is the validation that our technology could enable current jet engines to operate from takeoff up through Mach 4 and beyond,” said Andrew Piotti, the Engineering Manager for Reaction Engines US.

The Reaction Engines US team has been making steady progress since contract award in mid-2021.  The tripling of the planned heat load triggered the need for several system upgrades to the company’s TF2 high-temperature test site at the Colorado Air and Space Port and the team has rapidly progressed through all design milestones and integration of new hardware.