THE company building a space plane will today reveal how it plans to use a £60m Government grant.

Reaction Engines, based in Culham, will make the announcement at the 2013 UK Space Conference in Glasgow.

Reaction says the Skylon space plane will be able to reach speeds of more than 19,000 miles an hour – meaning London to Australia in just four hours.

The key piece of technology is the plane’s Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine (SABRE).

Essentially a powerful air conditioning unit, the engine will cool incoming air from over 1,000°C to minus 150°C in less than 1/100th of a second – six times faster than the blink of an eye – without blocking with frost.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said the investment will enable Reaction to build and demonstrate a fully-operational SABRE engine.

This will allow the company to market its product and attract further investment.

Universities and science minister, David Willetts MP, will speak at the conference.

He said: “SABRE has the potential to completely transform how we access space. By supporting this breakthrough technology we are giving the UK a leading position in a growing market of new generation launchers and removing one of the main barriers to the growth of commercial activity in space.”