This is the quintessential example of what went wrong with British industry TTL. Namely, competing by offering a product thats far more sophisticated, too sophisticated in fact that it ends up being too expensive and requires far more development in return.
Nuclear Power with the AGR programme is a good example. The technology was almost mature by the 1980s, but it still required some extra development. It was not funded and the rest is history ...
All too common a fault, especially when combined with the UK's risky 60s obsession with leaping ahead to the "next stage", having admitted we'd lost this one. I'd put both Concorde and the Space Shuttle in the same category (it's not just a British disease).
The UK on its own does not have the critical mass to support an advanced aerospace industry, unless it has guaranteed markets overseas (Commonwealth) or pairs up and fully integrate with France or someone else.
Never stopped us spending a fortune trying to artificially sustain that critical mass.
An Anglo-French Hermes would have been far more successful, by the simple fact that double the numbers of satellites would have been sold to meet French needs.
Its definitely possible. Though the money going into Selene TTL may not be available to fund an Airbus programme which must be borne in mind.
For the moment? That's interesting ...![]()
British Aerospace (as it was then) didn't join Airbus until 1979, so there's still potential for something to happen. The epilogue was intended to leave plenty of questions unanswered.
Oh, and isn't it just ... hint hint.