HOTOL Britain's Air Breathing Spaceplane Rocket

HOTOL, for Horizontal Take-Off and Landing, was a 1980s British design for a single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) spaceplane that was to be powered by an airbreathing jet engine. Development was being conducted by a consortium led by Rolls-Royce and British Aerospace (BAe).

The ideas behind HOTOL originated from work done by British Engineer Alan Bond in the field of pre-cooled jet engines.

Designed as a single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) reusable winged launch vehicle, HOTOL was to be fitted with a unique air-breathing engine, the RB545 or Swallow, that was under development by British engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce. The propellant for the engine technically consisted of a combination of liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen; however, it was to employ a new means of dramatically reducing the amount of oxidizer needed to be carried on board by utilising atmospheric oxygen as the spacecraft climbed through the lower atmosphere. Since the oxidizer typically represents the majority of the takeoff weight of a rocket, HOTOL was to be considerably smaller than normal pure-rocket designs, roughly the size of a medium-haul airliner such as the McDonnell Douglas DC-9/MD-80.

The termination of development work on HOTOL led to the formation of Reaction Engines Limited (REL) to develop and produce Skylon, a proposed spacecraft based on HOTOL technologies, including its air-breathing engine.

A Good description on Thumblegudget Youtube Channel
HOTOL - Spaceplane of the future

#ksp #esa #nasa

[geodog]

This is how I imagined the space plane in 2001 taking off

[jeremytaylor]

Ok it's off, now how in the hell do we land this beast.

[novoscorp]

Beautiful CGI video. I remember HOTOL (Britian), HERMES (Germany) along with a few other spaceplane concepts from a Popular Mechanics magazine pullout i read as a teen in the late 1980s. 🙂

[jerrydaffy]

Beautiful and powerful British space plane.

[sabergolbaf]

The days that Britain can come up with anything this innovative are over, sun has set on this empire.

[shug]

I remember this starting it's development back in the mid 1980's when I used to work for Rolls Royce.
The idea and concept is not new but the technology is now at a point were it could be built.

[kinneticsand]

Nice upload! Britain had (and to a degree still has) some very cool and clever rockets.

[CBJAMPA]

Right out of Thunderbirds. It’s a go! ❤

[РоманМамонтов-тг]

Красивая компьютерная графика.Жаль что пощупать нельзя.

[Oldman]

Fireball XL5 will finally take to the skies.

[steveengleman]

Your graphics are mind-blowing! Great job!

[gregorypkampwirth]

This is so incredibly cool 😎 luv it!!👍🏻👊🏼✊🏻🚀🛫

[Alex--er]

❤Огромная благодарность оператору, подарившему нам возможность увидеть эту красоту! ❤ Huge thanks to the operator who gave us the opportunity to see this beauty!

[anywherepcgeeks]

I have read about the details of how that engine works and it is, in my opinion, a brilliant Innovation by the British. I am looking forward to seeing this being properly funded and developed to the point where it can be used on a regular basis.

Actually, I was hoping Elon Musk and his company, SpaceX, would be interested in working with the British on the development of this engine, and licensing the technology for use in a reusable rocket built by SpaceX. I think it would be a great way to have a reusable vehicle capable of horizontal takeoff, travel to orbit, and return and land on any Runway. I think this would also be very useful for point-to-point travel.

[bobblum]

Nice job, graphics are great! The music is good, but for some reason I kept expecting the _Thunderbirds_ theme! (I watched them when they were new, back in the 1960s! 😊)

[dondonas]

Super !AMAZING ! Beatiful !Respect !❤❤❤

[cyrillekaouche-psjq]

Stunning 🎉 Gorgeous 🎉 God bless British Aerospace 🎉 God bless the Engineers who made that dream come true 🎉 Good God bless and heal everyone today ❤❤❤.

[brendandowney]

Another great graphies display...To show us how things could be further in the

[doltsbane]

So who are YOU imagining at the controls, Dan Dare or Scott Tracy?

[arthurwagar]

Well done. I like the rocket engine to stop the sled. Nice touch.