UK engineers developing a novel propulsion system say their technology has reached a new performance level.
The Sabre air-breathing rocket engine is designed to drive space planes to orbit and take airliners around the world in just a few hours.
To work, it needs to manage very high temperature airflows, and the team at Reaction Engines Ltd has developed a heat-exchanger for the purpose.
This key element has just demonstrated an impressive level of performance.
It has shown the ability to handle the simulated conditions of flying at more than three times the speed of sound.
It did this by successfully quenching a 420C stream of gases in less than 1/20th of a second.