LEAP 71 and HBD show off giant 3D printed aerospike rocket engine with 200 kN of thrust

LEAP 71 and Hanbang United 3D Tech, also known as HBD, have produced a 3D printed aerospike rocket engine rated at 200 kilonewtons, or about 20 metric tons, of thrust. The companies describe the XRA-2E5 as the largest 3D printed aerospike engine built to date.

The engine stands 1 meter tall and is designed to run on cryogenic methane and liquid oxygen. Dubai-based LEAP 71 developed the engine geometry using Noyron, its computational engineering model, while Shanghai-based HBD manufactured the part as a monolithic structure in Inconel 718, a nickel-based superalloy widely used in rocket propulsion.

Computational design for unprecedented progress in metal AM

This is not the first high-profile collaboration by LEAP 71 with large-format metal 3D printer companies. Previous projects shown last year have involved SLM Solutions for a flow engine injector head and Farsoon for a hypersonic pre-cooler.

Noyron generates functional designs from physics models, engineering constraints and manufacturing requirements rather than conventional manual drafting. The XRA-2E5 builds on two earlier aerospike engines generated with the same system and hot-fired over the past 15 months. In last year’s interview, LEAP 71’s Lin Kayser explained how they are enabling unprecedented progress in rocket engine development.

“Aerospikes are often considered the holy grail of space propulsion,” said Josefine Lissner, CEO of LEAP 71 and Principal Architect of Noyron. “They promise major performance advantages over conventional engines, but their complex geometry has historically made them extremely difficult to design, manufacture and operate. We believe that by combining computational engineering with advanced additive manufacturing, we can finally make them fly.”

Aerospike engines replace the bell-shaped nozzle used in conventional rocket engines with a toroidal combustion chamber and central spike. That configuration is intended to maintain efficiency across a wider range of atmospheric conditions, from sea level to vacuum, making the design relevant for reusable launch systems that operate in multiple flight regimes. The 200 kN engine is sized for upper stages in large reusable launch vehicles.

Sheer manufacturing scale

HBD produced the engine in 289 hours of continuous build time on its HBD 800 system, which uses 10 lasers and has a stated build volume of 830 by 830 by 1,250 millimeters. The aerospike geometry includes shallow overhangs and internal channels that can complicate powder-bed fusion processes, particularly at this scale.

To manage thermal loads, the engine uses regenerative cooling. LEAP 71 states that cryogenic methane cools the outer chamber, while liquid oxygen circulates through the spike.

“Just a year ago, producing an engine like this at this scale would have been impossible,” said Kevin Chen, Director of Marketing at HBD. “The physics-driven geometry of the aerospike, with shallow overhangs and intricate internal structures, pushes even advanced metal printing processes to their limits. Successfully producing the engine on the first build demonstrates the stability and precision of HBD’s large-format additive manufacturing platform and provides hardware ready to move toward hot-fire qualification.”

The companies state that the project is part of LEAP 71’s propulsion development work with Aspire Space for the fully reusable Oryx spacecraft.