Scientists and mission control workers check their monitors at the European Space Agency's (ESA) main control room in Darmstadt, August 6, 2014.
Scientists and mission control workers check their monitors at the European Space Agency's (ESA) main control room in Darmstadt, August 6, 2014. Reuters

The European Space Agency, or ESA, an inter-governmental agency with 20 member-states and is dedicated to the exploration of space, has granted approval for a high-powered jet plane that could travel anywhere in the world in a span of about four hours, be it from Britain to Australia or Mexico to China. The plane would be equipped with a particular type of engine that would help perform the task.

According to news.com.au, a technology called Synergistic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine, or Sabre, owned by Reaction Engines, has the ability to work like a jet engine in the atmosphere and like a rocket in a space. It also allows the aircraft to reach five times the speed of sound. The ESA operates as an independent auditor for the technology and the approval from the agency has been considered an important declaration regarding the project.

An article by Bustle stated that the Sabre pre-cooling system had the power to cool the engine by more than 1,000 degrees Celsius in a span of 0.01 second. The system can perform this function without the creation of icy blockages and also uses pipes that have been filled with condensed helium and arranged in a "swirl" pattern.

Reaction Engines is a privately owned company in the United Kingdom. It has yet to complete a full version of the Sabre engine but has constructed a critical component for it. The critical component has been approved to be used on an aircraft called Skylon in the wake of a feasibility study.

The company is looking to raise a sum of AUD$480 million over the next three years for the purpose of funding a small version of this engine. It also hopes to put up an engine for sale in a span of about 10 years.

For the project to become a reality, it will take some time. Reaction Engines have said that the technology will have major implications with regards to air travel. It is also thought to be the first and only piece of technology so far of this kind.