Skylon: A Story of Great Britain

Postscript: The picture at the end includes Churchill and US President Roosevelt and I chose it for its symbolic quality between two countries, nothing more than that.

Great Britain, under loose examination, is the cradle of modern civilization.
In 1660, the Royal Society was founded, the oldest national scientific institution, in the world.
By 1700 there were scientific institutions throughout Britain.
So much of the technology embedded in today’s society, trace their lineage to inventions realized in Great Britain, such as televisions and telephones.

But it’s engines that have been among Britain’s hallmark contributions.
Starting with the first practical steam engine, invented in 1712 by English inventor Thomas Newcomen.
It was this great invention that led Scottish Engineer James Watt and English Manufacturer Matthew Boulton to improved it and develop the Watt Steam Engine, completed in 1775.
The technology from the Watt Engine allowed factories to be built anywhere as they were limited to areas where they could harness wind and water power, factories that ultimately led to a new era of urbanization.
The Watt Steam Engine led to the technology used in locomotives and steamships which allowed for the rapid transportation of goods and people.
The Watt Engine and technology that came out of it drove the industrial revolution.
The revolution that led us to the modern life that we enjoy today, began, in Great Britain.
From Watt, we move on to Royal Air Force Engineer Officer Sir Frank Whittle, who single-handedly invented the turbojet engine.
Whittle came up with the idea to use a turbine and compressors to extract power from the exhaust and ultimately provide compressed air for the burner.
He was knighted for his accomplishments
It’s wonderfully befitting that today; Great Britain is developing the revolutionary Synergistic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine or SABRE for short.
SABRE will power the world’s first fully reusable, single-stage-to-orbit space plane called Skylon.
Skylon is being developed by Reaction Engines Limited (REL for short) which is headquartered out of Oxfordshire England

Both Skylon and REL were born from the ashes from Britain’s HOTOL program which began in 1982.
HOTOL stands for Horizontal Take-off and Landing, and the program aimed to design and build a single-stage-to-orbit reusable winged launch vehicle and was jointly developed by Rolls-Royce and British Aerospace.
Ultimately, the British government decided to withdraw funding for HOTOL and the program shut down 1988.
Alan Bond, the brainchild behind HOTOL and two principal engineers from Rolls Royce John Scott and Richard Varvill, who worked on the project, founded REL in 1989, determined to develop the world’s first single-stage-to-orbit reusable space plane.
By 1993, REL revealed the spaceplane proposal and its name, Skylon, after this futuristic looking structure built in 1951 for the Festival of Britain.
Skylon will be a spacecraft, unlike anything we’ve seen before.
It measures 83 meters long, with a 26-meter wingspan and an over 6-meter diameter.
And it weighs 325,000 kg fully loaded.
The frame will be constructed out of silicon carbide reinforced titanium with its skin made out of ceramic composite skin which will protect from re-entry.

Sources:

[neoscribe]

The picture at the end includes Churchill and US President Roosevelt and I chose it for its symbolic quality between two countries, nothing more than that.
I chose that particular verse of the anthem because of its musical quality, namely the acapella tone.
Please don't interpret the ending as political or propaganda or anything like that.
The idea behind the video was to celebrate Britain's rich scientific history and to express excitement for Skylon.
Sorry if the image is offensive but I stand by my reasoning.

[tyler]

As much as i love spacex, i love spaceplanes more. Its what science fiction has depicted for decades (not all). So i hope skylon can get the funding it needs

[MorganMadej]

The UK has suffered from incompetent politicians and leaders for decades, especially when it comes to sustaining research and development for projects that they cannot comprehend technically! In general, government ministers and members of parliament are not qualified engineers or planners or even project management specialists. It seems that senior civil servants have more clout than a bumbling minister. See Yes, Minister! (A BBC2 TV series)

[erikengheim]

Britain seems to have a general European problem. Unlike the US, in Europe we are just not very good at funding great new innovative ideas. People often talk about the importance of innovation, but it has over the years seemed to me like there is never a lack of ideas and invention in Europe, it is a severe lack of capital willing to invest in innovation.

My cautious hope is that the success of SpaceX will spark a flame in Europe as well and get people into believing in space enough that they will pour more money into Skylon. As SpaceX advances it will have to become apparent to European governments that ESA can not possible compete with the Ariane rocket. They will HAVE to do something more radical to compete.

[flybe]

Well done, that was a much-needed mini-documentary on what I hope as an Englishman and a former pilot will be, once again, our finest aircraft since Concorde - thank you.

[Music]

It's a real shame Mrs Thatcher didn't back it back in the 1980's. We may have had single stage to orbit by now.
I hope they do succeed, and also all the others like Spacex, blue origin etc.

[frasermanley]

Great video.i have been following Skylon for a long time. It's unfortunate to hear about Alan's retirement. He was the driving force behind the design. Also love the new direction of the channel, the video's feel a lot more mature and concise

[izzytse]

Great Britain is really a great country, and I hope the skylon project won't be hindered anymore by fund deficiency. Respect from China.

[DavidBowring]

Apart from using the wrong flag, thanks for the video! When I was a kid I was amazed at how great our country was. Sadly, I seldom feel the same way now, but there's still hope!

[rowland]

Sad stuff really with alot of english inventions they never get the funding.

[jeremytravis]

Britain has always had a history of science and innovation. It's a shame that so much of it was not taken forward. I hear of Reaction engines some time ago and wondered if this is one of the ideas that will actually happen.

[bumfie]

Followed this project for years
Much respect for Alan Bond + how he has inspired so many folks
Fingers crossed he gets to see his hard work finished + into Space
Its also Very Dan Dare

[David--]

The Union flag at the beginning is inaccurate as it doesn't include saint Patrick's cross which represents Ireland (modern day Northern Ireland) in the union flag.

[foxpup]

They're moving rather slow by SpaceX standards. Skylon may get left in the BFR dust, but they do seem to offer some great technology. Perhaps cooperation is called for.

[matthewakian]

Alan Bond is definitely one of the greatest British engineers. He still works for Reaction Engines as a consultant.

[Etheoma]

Well the thing was that at the time the pre cooler just wasn't possible, so it was reasonable to moth ball it, but advances in manufacturing have made it just about possible to make the pre coolers, there were other challenges apart from just having the capacity to cool enough air with a relatively light heat exchanger, but those seem to have also been overcame, from then on it's just like developing a normal jet engine once you have the pre-cooler sorted, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's on schedule for 2020 for the engine, the hull is another matter though.

The UK is known for letting schedules slip on big projects, and I think for the engines the worst is behind them, as said however the hull is a different matter.

[planetfall]

I really hope they get the funding to at lest get the engine working, even if skylon never flies such hyper-sonic air breathing engines would an important technology for many space and fast transportation designs. Imagine a modification of a BFR first stage to have air breathing abilities for the intial part of its flight, that would save many tons of oxygen and tank.

[-lightningwill-]

Can I point out how much the UK has helped the world so so so much and it goes un noticed

[davidgifford]

Reactions Engines have tested important components of the Sabre engine, demonstrating the viability of the concept. The Achilles heal of the Sabre is it is not really possible to build a "small" (cheap) demonstrator. Skylon is the size it is to fit the engine. The next step is to build a full scale demonstrator, hence the huge cost required to go to the next step. The time for Skylon may have already have past as a new generation of fully reusable rockets will undermine the Skylon's economic viability.

[relaxationstation]

I have long been totally excited about this highly innovative project and the real prospect of low orbit hyper-sonic commercial passenger transport that will eventually bring point to point transport to any global position down to 45 minutes to 3 hours to all global positions... That will be a beautiful day and I wonder if modern civilization as we now know it will live to see it.