SHANGHAI, China, Mar 12, 2026 – LEAP 71, a Dubai-based company pioneering the field of Computational Engineering, and HBD, a Shanghai-based leader in large-format metal additive manufacturing, have produced one of the world’s most complex space propulsion systems, a 3D-printed aerospike rocket engine, generating 20 tons of thrust (200 kN / 45,000 lbf). The one-meter-tall cryogenic methane/liquid oxygen engine will be exhibited at the TCT Asia trade show in Shanghai this month.
The engine, designated XRA-2E5, was engineered using Noyron, LEAP 71’s Large Computational Engineering Model. Noyron uses first-principles physics, engineering logic, and manufacturing constraints to autonomously generate functional designs without human intervention.
HBD 3D-printed the monolithic engine in a record 289 hours of continuous build time using the HBD 800 printer, a ten-laser metal additive manufacturing system. With a build volume of 830 × 830 × 1250 mm, the HBD 800 is one of the largest metal powder-bed fusion printers in the world.
“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.”
The engine shares its DNA with two earlier Noyron-generated aerospike engines that LEAP 71 hot-fired over the past 15 months. The 200 kN design, the largest 3D-printed aerospike ever produced, is suitable for the upper stages of large reusable launch vehicles.
Aerospike engines use an “inside-out” architecture with a toroidal combustion chamber and a central spike. To manage the intense heat loads from the combustion gases, the XRA-2E5 uses a regenerative cooling strategy where the outer chamber is cooled by the cryogenic methane fuel, and the spike is cooled using liquid oxygen.
Unlike conventional engines with their bell-shaped nozzles, aerospikes maintain high efficiency from sea level to vacuum, making them particularly attractive for next-generation launch systems that re-use both stages of the rocket. In a fully reusable launch system, both the booster and the upper stage return to the launch site, requiring propulsion systems that operate efficiently inside and outside the Earth’s atmosphere and provide deep throttling capability.
“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 collaborated closely to align Noyron’s design strategy with the capabilities of HBD’s additive manufacturing platform. The result is a fully integrated monolithic engine printed in Inconel 718, a high-temperature nickel superalloy commonly used in rocket propulsion systems.
The XRA-2E5 marks a major manufacturing validation milestone for LEAP 71’s multi-year propulsion development effort with Aspire Space for the fully reusable Oryx spacecraft.
HBD will exhibit the aerospike at TCT Asia in Shanghai, Hall 7.1, Booth 7E35.
About HBD
HBD (Shanghai Hanbang United 3D Tech Co., Ltd.) is a Chinese manufacturer of industrial metal additive manufacturing systems headquartered in Shanghai. The company focuses on laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) technology and develops a range of metal 3D printers used across industries including aerospace, automotive, medical, energy, sports, robotics, the low-altitude economy, and research.
Founded by specialists in laser technology, HBD entered the metal additive manufacturing sector in 2007 and introduced its first commercial metal 3D printer in 2013. Since then, the company has developed multiple industrial platforms spanning small, medium, and large build volumes and has installed 1000+ systems worldwide.
HBD’s technology portfolio includes multi-laser LPBF systems designed for high-throughput production and large-format metal printing. The company collaborates with industrial partners and research institutions to advance additive manufacturing applications in high-performance engineering sectors.
Visit https://en.hb3dp.com/ for more information.
About LEAP 71
LEAP 71 was founded on the vision that radically accelerating real-world engineering is essential to shaping the future of humankind. Strategically based in Dubai, UAE, the company works with customers around the globe to design advanced machinery in fields such as aerospace, electric mobility, robotics, and thermal systems.
A pioneer in the emerging field of Computational Engineering, LEAP 71 designs physical objects autonomously — without human intervention. At its core is Noyron, a Large Computational Engineering Model that encodes logic, physics, production methodologies, and real-world feedback into a coherent, deterministic system. It has been called “the first AI that builds machines.”
Noyron generates functional designs in seconds or minutes, optimized for modern manufacturing technologies such as industrial 3D printing.
A key focus for the company is enabling access to space. LEAP 71 is developing a spectrum of reference designs for space propulsion systems that serve as the DNA for customer-specific engines. Frequent physical testing and validation are used to continuously enrich Noyron’s models.
LEAP 71 was founded in 2023 by aerospace engineer Josefine Lissner and serial entrepreneur Lin Kayser.
Visit the LEAP 71 website for more information.
