At TCT Asia 2026, LEAP 71 and HBD presented a milestone in additive manufacturing: the XRA-2E5 rocket engine. This aerospike architecture, which generates 200 kN of thrust, was produced as a single monolithic piece in Inconel 718 using metal 3D printing. The process, uninterrupted for 289 hours, demonstrates how the symbiosis between computational design and large-format additive manufacturing is redefining the limits of aerospace engineering for high-performance components.
The technical challenge of monolithic printing and computational design 🛠️
The manufacturing of the XRA-2E5 represents a qualitative leap. Printing such a large and complex metal structure, with its intricate internal regenerative cooling channels, in a single 289-hour process requires extreme control over parameters such as thermal management and material distortion. This is where LEAP 71's Noyron model was crucial. This computational design system not only optimized the geometry for propulsion flow performance but fundamentally generated a viable architecture for additive manufacturing, ensuring that every internal and external detail could be built continuously without subsequent assemblies.
Implications for the future of aerospace manufacturing 🚀
This success is not just a technology demonstrator. It validates a production route for critical components that are lighter, more efficient, and faster to manufacture than with traditional techniques. By eliminating hundreds of parts and welds, reliability is improved and costs are reduced. For the space industry, especially for upper stages of reusable launchers as planned in the program with Aspire Space, this means high-performance engines produced with agility and designs previously impossible, radically accelerating development cycles.
How do they overcome the challenges of metal 3D printing to manufacture critical internal geometries, such as regenerative cooling channels, in a monolithic aerospike engine like the XRA-2E5?
(P.S.: don't forget to level the bed, or your print will look like abstract art)