A Dubai based startup called LEAP71 achieved a significant milestone in aerospace engineering by successfully test-firing the world’s first liquid-fuel rocket engine designed by AI.
Serial entrepreneur and engineer Lin Kayser and his wife Josefine Lissner, an aerospace engineer, combine their expertise as co-founders of LEAP71. This achievement marks the first engine designed by AI and the first liquid rocket engine created in the region.
Kayser recounts the tense 48 hours leading up to the test. “We were worried about a lot of things. First of all, are our computational models correct? Are our thermal models correct?”
“It’s not very hard to create literally a liquid engine, not a liquid fuel rocket engine, but a liquid engine,” he added, highlighting the risk in the process, if it failed.
The test took place at a former UK Air Force facility from World War II, with the team in a bunker protected by three-metre-thick concrete walls. Despite the engine’s small size, it was capable of generating 20,000 horsepower – enough to lift 500 kilograms off the ground, performing better than expected.
Encouraged by this success, they proceeded with a full 12-second burn at nominal conditions. The results exceeded projections.
The engine performed flawlessly, and the cooling system also proved more effective than anticipated.
