HOTOL.

So while researching for a potential TL I discovered HOTOL Britain's attempt at a space plane. OTL she was cancelled in the late 80's, how far was the UK from actually having this thing finished? What would the UK's role in space be if they actually managed to have built it? Could the UK have built it or was it just a pipe dream? What type of butterflies would have happened to other space agencies if the UK could put (I think) seven tonnes into orbit for 5 million pounds in comparison to the space shuttle $450 million(admittedly the space shuttle could carry more).
 
I believe the engines were quite far on in development by Rolls Royce, but the whole project came in the midst of a long economic crisis in Britain. Proposals were still being suggested with HOTOL into the late 1990's. however, i don't believe the design was ever really considered feasible as was.

However, the chief designer, Alan Bond, hs since gone onto to work on the private venture, Skylon and is currently going from strength to strengh. If it does make it to fruition it will propel Britain back into space with a bang.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylon_(spacecraft)

Russell
 
As Russel said, HOTOL work did sort of flow on into work on Skylon, but the big stumbling block has always been the engine--and more particularly the precooler. They've only gotten that working here in the last year, and they're still several years out from running a full SABRE engine. Until that happens and the engine's perfromance is confirmed, the entire vehicle can't really be considered or finalized. So...the idea had some promise, and now after nearly 30 years technology of focused technology development, the hardware has finally caught up to make it plausible. However, in the 80s that wasn't the case, and a focused development program couldn't have addressed all those issues in a timely fashion or cheaply.
 
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So while researching for a potential TL I discovered HOTOL Britain's attempt at a space plane. OTL she was cancelled in the late 80's, how far was the UK from actually having this thing finished? What would the UK's role in space be if they actually managed to have built it? Could the UK have built it or was it just a pipe dream? What type of butterflies would have happened to other space agencies if the UK could put (I think) seven tonnes into orbit for 5 million pounds in comparison to the space shuttle $450 million(admittedly the space shuttle could carry more).

Soome very smart people were involved with this, so it might be tnat it would have worked. But aerospace projects tend to go overbudget, overweight and overtime. And an SSTO is reallyREALLY sensitive to weight gains. My guess is theyd spend a bucketload of money and have nothing usable in the end. Like the venturestar.x33

Otoh, if they got the engines to work, even if not as efficiently as needed, they might allow for a TSTO if someone wanted to sink even MORE money into it.

SSTO isHARD, htohl makes it harder.
 
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