FirstSecondThoughts
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 3 months, 2012–2015
49:05 · 152K views · Sep 14, 2012
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.
Linked in Reaction Engines threads as the story behind the engine, though one commenter is skeptical of the company's funding record.
5 comments from Hacker News
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. this video
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: this video It includes a test-firing of the new heat-exchanger at the end.
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': this 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!!!
According to this BBC Four documentary (found in another comment) this video the engineers wanted to apply for a patent once the British government stopped funding their work, but the government classified their work as secret, preventing them from doing so. EDITED TO ADD: Apparently the original secret classification expired in 1993, at which point they filed a patent which ended up being owned by Rolls Royce. Their current work circumvents that patent.
This has a far better explanation of what the engine is about: [LINK] There's also a documentary on the developers: this video