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.
 
Thank you to all for reading the story, I'm glad that it seems to have gone down well.

Particular thanks to everyone who made suggestions, comments and asked questions along the way, I've had as much fun answering them as I did writing the thing in the first place and you provoked some thinking that led to a better, more complete and slightly less zany story.

I shall keep an eye on the thread in case there are any more questions lurking the background. There will be a further story, but it won't pick up where Selene left off (that would be too depressing); instead it will feature some of the longer term consequences of what has happened, both in the UK and elsewhere.
 
If anyone is still following this after all these years:

Selene is now available as a novel, entitled Point of No Return
Available electronically on Amazon here or as a print book here

Is it the same story as above?
... well, you'll have to buy the book to find out :biggrin:

(No, it's been completely rewritten).
 
nice, already grabbed if for my kindle. Gonna reread it when i go on holiday in august.
Many thanks, have fun!

Hopefully, you'll find there won't be much re-reading to do - I'm sure you'll recognise the theme, but it's more of a novel "inspired by" the story in this thread.
 
I went to the link but it wouldn't let me download a sample as I am not in the UK. Any plans to place it on Amazon US?
 
Top