Industry interest is likely to centre on collapsed developer’s thermal management technology and patent portfolio.
An undisclosed buyer has snapped up the intellectual property of UK hypersonic propulsion developer Reaction Engines, the company’s administrators have disclosed.
Reaction collapsed in October 2024 and insolvency specialists from PwC were appointed to handle the firm’s winding up and the realisation of its assets.
A sale process had been ongoing and the administrators had in June last year flagged that they had selected a preferred bidder.
But writing in their latest progress report – covering the six months to end-April but dated 29 May – the administrators say the sale was “successfully concluded” last month.
No details of the total raised by the transaction have been revealed, although non-refundable deposits of £884,000 ($1.66 million) have been received, the report says.
In an earlier report, Reaction Engines’ directors valued the IP at that figure.
Additionally, the identity of the buyer remains undisclosed; PwC promises a further update in its next progress report.
While Reaction’s SABRE hypersonic engine was its most headline-grabbing development, it is likely that the wider aerospace industry sees more value in its thermal-management and heat-exchanger technologies.
For example, prior to its collapse, it had been supplying such systems to a Honeywell Aerospace-led consortium developing a hydrogen fuel cell powertrain under an EU Clean Aviation-funded project.
With the sale confirmed, PwC believes it will be able to settle claims from preferential creditors – mainly employees and the UK tax authorities – in full. Unsecured creditors such as suppliers should now receive 10-50% of their claims, the firm estimates.
Last December, the administrators put the firm’s total deficiency at over £160 million, including now-worthless shareholdings of more than £150 million.
Since its founding in 1989, Reaction Engines had gained backing from aerospace primes including BAE Systems, Boeing and Rolls-Royce, alongside the United Arab Emirates’ Strategic Development Fund.
However, it failed to secure critical funding in the latter half of 2024, leading to the administration.
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