The Three Rocketeers-2012:BBC-Future of Space trav

FirstSecondThoughts · 151.8K views · 2012-09-14 · 49:05

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Overview

A BBC Four documentary following Alan Bond and Reaction Engines as they pursue the Skylon spaceplane and its SABRE engine. It covers the history from HOTOL and the heat-exchanger breakthrough.

On Hacker News

Linked in Reaction Engines threads as the story behind the engine, though one commenter is skeptical of the company's funding record.

Recommended by 2 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2012–2015

Topics

Space exploration & spaceflight Aviation & aerospace engineering Documentaries & storytelling

What people said

curiousjorge · 2015-07 · Recommendation
I think this will be the single biggest revolution since aviation history. It would change the way we travel, send things up to space. Of course, military consequences will be interesting as well. I wonder if US military already has something like this in the works. I'd hate it to see it fall into the wrong type of people. Very inspiring stuff. [VIDEO]
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peterstjohn · 2012-11 · Recommendation
Here's a documentary that was broadcast on BBC4 a couple of months ago about Bond and his quixotic journey to get HOTOL/Skylon into the sky: [VIDEO] It includes a test-firing of the new heat-exchanger at the end.
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Theodores · 2015-07 · Criticism
This project is a bit like the British 'Bloodhound' land speed record attempt in that there is a bit of 'Duke Nukem' about it, i.e. it is never going to happen! Very 'British' though, with the usual cause for failure, e.g. short term return on investment demands of the city, the uselessness of the government for backing 'British genius' and so on. Anyone not sceptical is advised to watch the BBC documentary 'The Three Rocketeers': [VIDEO] These guys have been begging for funding and making the same 'design studies' for decades, the fact that British Aerospace 'BAE SYSTEMS' have disowned the project is quite telling, it is not anywhere near being tangible and it never will be. The only lesson to be learned here is how not to run your start up!!!
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Sources

Video by FirstSecondThoughts, played through YouTube.

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