LEAP 71, the Dubai-based AI engineering company, announced the successful test firing of a liquid rocket engine created entirely through Noyron, the company’s Large Computational Engineering Model.
The engine was designed autonomously without human intervention and then 3D-printed in copper. The rocket thruster was successfully hot-fired at a rocket test stand in the UK.
With 5 kN (500 kg / 1124 lbf) of thrust, the engine generated the expected 20,000 horsepower and completed all tests, including a long-duration burn.
Josefine Lissner, Aerospace engineer and Managing Director of LEAP 71, said, “This is an important milestone for us and the entire industry. We can automatically create functional rocket thrusters and directly move to practical validation. From final specification to manufacturing, the design of this engine took less than 2 weeks. In traditional engineering, this task would take many months or even years. Each new engine iteration takes only minutes. Innovation in space propulsion is hard and costly. With our approach, we hope to make space more accessible for everyone.”
The generated engine uses cryogenic Liquid Oxygen (LOX) and Kerosene as propellants. The copper combustion chamber is regeneratively cooled, and the injector head features a state-of-the-art coaxial swirler to mix the propellants.
Lin Kayser, co-founder of LEAP 71, said, Our company is at the forefront of the new field of Computational Engineering, where sophisticated machines can be designed without manual work. The paradigm significantly accelerates the pace of innovation for real-world objects. The fact that the Noyron thruster operated nominally on the first try, confirms that the approach is working. The method can be applied to any field of engineering.”
LEAP 71 worked with the leading German metal 3D printing company AMCM on the thruster’s production. It was then post-processed at the University of Sheffield and prepared for the test. The fire was performed at Airborne Engineering, Ltd. in Wescott, UK.
LEAP 71 will use the test data to further advance Noyron. The company is working with leading US, European, and Asian aerospace companies to commercialise the resulting rocket engines.
