Skylon, HOTOL and Reaction Engines - the best of British know-how!

A short video on the Skylon spaceplane, its origins in the HOTOL project in the 1980s, and the company behind it, Reaction Engines. The images in order: Hermes spaceplane, HOTOL, Skylon, Lapcat A2. All rights to their respective owners

[RossForsterFraser]

Hi Jason, yes its an excellent documentary! I remember all the problems with HOTOL during the 1980s, so glad it looks like they might have found a technology solution!

[RossForsterFraser]

t43562 - thanks for that. I do recall that they had to redesign the vehicle and ended up losing at least half the payload due to COG problems, as I understand it. I thought the engine cooling technology was a lot less advanced than you suggest - I remember the pictures of the engine covered in ice on the news at the time, but it would be typical of the media to not have followed up to see if those problems were solved!

[karlthemel]

If it continued to be top-secret, there was no valid reason to cancel the project.

[t]

I think you might have the icing situation wrong - they could in fact deal with it (in the mid 1980s).  The problem with hotol was that it ended up not being able to lift enough to be economically viable for reasons that included the weight distribution problem.