Reaction Engines’ 30-year ambition to develop an engine for hypersonic flight is at risk as it goes into administration.

British accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has published a statement on its website announcing it has been appointed as joint administrators of Reaction Engines after the company was unable to raise the funding to continue operations.

Reaction Engines, founded in 1989, is a privately-owned aerospace engineering research company with headquarters in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.

For most of these 35 years, the company has been focused on the development of SABRE (Synergetic Air Breathing Rocket Engine), a new class of engine combining the fuel efficiency of a jet engine with the power and high-speed capability of a rocket. The aim is to eventually use this heat exchanger technology to propel high-speed aircraft and spacecraft in hypersonic flight.

In August Reaction Engines announced that it had reached a signifiant milestone for its propulsion system concept for high...