内容摘要：Rolls-Royce declines to go into details about Reaction's collapse, but Mr Varvill is more specific.

Rolls-Royce declines to go into details about Reaction's collapse, but Mr Varvill is more specific.

Mr Stults adds: "We just want to compete on an even playing field with our friends and neighbours all over the world. That's our ask and that's our hope.""It was going great until it fell apart." Richard Varvill recalls the emotional shock that hits home when a high-tech venture goes off the rails.

The former chief technology officer speaks ruefully about his long career trying to bring a revolutionary aerospace engine to fruition at UK firm Reaction Engines.The origins of Reaction Engines go back to the Hotol project in the 1980s. This was a futuristic space plane that caught the public imagination with the prospect of a British aircraft flying beyond the atmosphere.The secret sauce of Hotol was heat exchanger technology, an attempt to cool the super-heated 1,000C air that enters an engine at hypersonic speeds.

Without cooling this will melt aluminium, and is, Mr Varvill says, "literally too hot to handle".Fast forward three decades to October 2024 and Reaction Engines was bringing the heat exchanger to life at sites in the UK and US.

UK Ministry of Defence funding took the company into hypersonic research with Rolls-Royce for an unmanned aircraft. But that was not enough to keep the business afloat.

Rolls-Royce declines to go into details about Reaction's collapse, but Mr Varvill is more specific.The lawsuit included side-by-side pictures comparing the appearances of Mondelēz' product with Aldi's.

In the lawsuit, Aldi is accused of trademark infringement, unfair competition and unjust enrichment. Mondelēz said it is seeking damages.Mondelēz described Aldi's business model as hinging on "low-priced private label products that resemble the look and feel of well-known brands".

Aldi, which has its headquarters in Germany, is known as a discount supermarket offering affordable alternatives to well-known brands.There are over 2,500 Aldi shops in the US.