Under contract from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Reaction Engines has achieved a precooler run at Mach 5 temperatures and demonstrated the validity of its lightweight heat exchanger. Critical to the successful operation of its SABRE hypersonic propulsion system, the precooler has 16,800 thin-wall tubes through which helium is pumped to remove heat. The test at the Colorado Space Port is a significant step on the way to demonstrating a SABRE core in 2021 and a precooler evaluation for the Eurojet EJ200 turbofan under a £10 million RAF contract.
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