Airborne Engineering in STERN rocket development

Airborne Engineering joins forces with Reaction Engines Ltd and Bristol University in a research programme on Expansion Deflection nozzles.

The colaborative programme, codenamed Project STERN, has been set-up to investigate the potential of Expansion Deflection (ED) rocket nozzles for use on spaceplanes, such as Reaction Engine's Skylon vehicle.

ED nozzles offer the potential to build a rocket engine which works at optimum efficiency over its entire altitude range. This is particularly important for Skylon which uses the same engines to take off from the Earth's surface and fly into to space. This is unlike a conventional staged booster where each stage's nozzles can be optimised for its operating environment.

The ED nozzle is a technology which has not received much attention until now. Past studies have been hampered by the lack of modern computation techniques to design and model the nozzle profile. Bristol University's Aerospace Engineering Department has overcome these problems and is designing an experimental engine to test the concept.

Airborne Engineering will design and manufacture the test rig for the engine, including thrust stand, propellant supply system, control gear, instrumentation and data logging. Airborne Engineering will also provide test operations support.