HOTOL: Britain's Spaceplane by Dan Sharp

(This post is spoiler-free)

I'm currently about 90 pages in, and I'm really appreciating the fact that I haven't stumbled across any serious typos or editing SNAFUs yet. This might seem like a minor point, but I've struggled through so many specialty aerospace titles with absolutely awful editing and spell-checking (I still haven't been able to convince myself to finish Davide Sivolella's Untold Stories of the Space Shuttle Program), that I'm happy that Dan and the folks at Morton/Tempest seem to be taking it seriously. I also love that the diagrams and schematics are big and clear enough to be studied without a 1000-watt overhead bulb and a magnifying glass. Can't wait to dig deeper into the book and admire the brochure graphics. And even though I managed to slightly rip one of the pages freeing it, that ribbon bookmark is a lot classier than the crinkled ShopRite receipts I usually use!

A word of caution for future buyers: the paper is thinner and more prone to wrinkling than earlier Morton titles, so be careful handling the pages. I double-checked my copies of The Secret Horsepower Race and the Me 262 Development & Politics, and the printer definitely used a lighter weight paper stock this time around.
 
BigD said:
(This post is spoiler-free)
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Thank you, BigD. I envy your pre-pub access, but haven't yet been tempted to go your eBay route. I did finish his book that you mention and have it on the shelf in front of me, but as I had commented in the thread "Some Future Titles of Interest for SPF Members", Davide Sivolella wrote his Space Shuttle books in English, but the writing therein is often so stilted and clumsy that it's tough to enjoy his books, despite my interest in the subject. So I advise not to bother finishing. As per your general point about an evidently poor copyediting effort marring a book, I share your aggravation when (too often) that occurs. No doubt lack of a copyeditor is another foolishly self-destructive cut made for reasons of economy.

I'm glad to hear that you like Mr Sharp's new HOTOL book, at least its first ninety-odd pages. I will look at the paper quality when my own copy arrives (of course, the paper the Maltese printer used was no choice of the author's). May I ask you to check on one specific question for me, at your convenience? Read my post #100 in this thread, and see its attachment. Six persons have endorsed my post so far. Inside the new book, is there a schematic line drawing of a HOTOL vehicle as good as or (dare I ask) even better than the spectacular 1989 example? I will buy the new book anyway even if all its figures are just the computer-generated stuff of nowadays, but I would like to know. (Mr Sharp's excellent British Secret Projects 5: Britain's Space Shuttle about the MUSTARD vehicle includes many original blueprint drawings among its figures, but this isn't quite what I mean.)
 
Rhinocrates said:
I pre-ordered from the publisher. It hasn't arrived yet in New Zealand yet but they did say that mail would be slow and take up to eight weeks outside the UK.
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Good luck, Rhinocrates. Just out of curiosity, what is the general book availability in New Zealand? Do bookstores there carry most of the English-language books that would also be seen on the shelves of New York and London bookstores? Or do most books of interest have to be specially ordered by the individual from overseas?
 
Owens Z said:
May I ask you to check on one specific question for me, at your convenience? Read my post #100 in this thread, and see its attachment. Six persons have endorsed my post so far. Inside the new book, is there a schematic line drawing of a HOTOL vehicle as good as or (dare I ask) even better than the spectacular 1989 example? I will buy the new book anyway even if all its figures are just the computer-generated stuff of nowadays, but I would like to know. (Mr Sharp's excellent British Secret Projects 5: Britain's Space Shuttle about the MUSTARD vehicle includes many original blueprint drawings among its figures, but this isn't quite what I mean.)
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While unfortunately there isn't an overall cutaway quite as detailed as that one, there's still an absolute boatload of original technical diagrams of all the HOTOL configurations and some of the other British SSTO and air-launched spaceplane designs of the period. Again, not wanting to spoil anything, but there's at least a couple hundred piece of line art in this book, along with some color diagrams and profile views produced specifically for it.
 
Owens Z said:
Good luck, Rhinocrates. Just out of curiosity, what is the general book availability in New Zealand? Do bookstores there carry most of the English-language books that would also be seen on the shelves of New York and London bookstores? Or do most books of interest have to be specially ordered by the individual from overseas?
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Bookselling has been ravaged. There haven't been good specialist technical brick and mortar bookshops in even the largest cities for decades. There's no chance that I'd see this book on shelves other than in a library.

I would say that the libraries are good, and it's true, but at the moment in my city, the central library is shut down for major earthquake strengthening and replaced by a couple of temporary pop-ups no better than the suburban branches. They did have the Secret Projects series, Jenkins, the Raven and Roberts books on WWII warships etc. but things like that are in the stacks now.

Anyway, the problem with libraries is that you have to give the books back. :)

A chain or two dominates, selling things you put on coffee tables and other things you read on a plane if you don't have a Kindle. I ignore those entirely.

There is a good independent bookseller, Unity Books, which actually cares about and engages with its customers and will get anything you want and some second hand shops out of Terry Pratchett's dreams.
 
Reeived my copy yesterday. Delivery was perfect. First impressions:

Beautiful edition. Just a bit heavier as "average" aviation books. Still handy for anyone.

Contents look brilliant, full of information and images. An exhaustive and clearly readable research work. A delight for plain fans of history of technology and those who specially appreciate unbuilt designs.

Congratulations, Mr Sharp, once again you have my admiration and gratitude as a reader
 
Preface 9
Introduction 11
Chapter 1: Genesis 1982-1984 19
Chapter 2: Breaking News 1984-1985 34
Chapter 3: Proof of Concept 1985-May 31,1986 58
Chapter 4: Configuration F June 1-December 31, 1986 94
Chapter 5: Popular Myths January 1-June 10, 1987 140
Chapter 6: A Sound Basis for Comparison Alternative Launch Vehicles 162
Chapter 7: The Hugely Expensive Club June 11,1987-December 31, 1987 202
Chapter 8: Approaching the Limit January 1,1988-July 27, 1988 241
Chapter 9: Outstanding Items of Work July 28, 1988-June 11, 1989 264
Chapter 10: Interim Hotol June 12,1989-June 20, 1991 299
Chapter 11: Hotol-M, P150, Radem and Skylon June 21, 1991-1994 329
Chapter 12: Other Launch Systems Competitors and Contemporaries 363
Abbreviations 398
Vehicle Data Table 400
Hotol History of Structural Development 401
Who Was Who 406
Bibliography 414
Index 417
 
woods170 said:
Much like "Spaceplane HERMES" (written by Luc van den Abeelen) is the first and (so far) only book written solely about HERMES.
Both subjects (HOTOL and HERMES) are so specific, and so obscure (from the general public's point of view) that it's unlikely there will be ever more than one book written per subject.
On another note: I received my copy of Dan's HOTOL book today. It's a magnificent piece of work. Only flipped thru it a few times so far, and scan-read several pages, but I can already highly recommend this book.
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Woods170, presumably you have since had time to read more of Mr Sharp's book HOTOL: Britain's Spaceplane. If you like, please consider posting a review here of this new book as compared and contrasted with Luc van den Abeelen's book Spaceplane Hermes: Europe's Dream of Independent Manned Spaceflight (Springer-Praxis, 2017), of which I and no doubt others on this thread have a copy and am familiar with. We would be interested in hearing your informed thoughts. As you know, the Hermes vehicle's 1983-93 timeline was contemporaneous with HOTOL's.
 
Mr Sharp, on behalf of myself and your other would-be American customers, may I request a favor? Please ask your editorial contact at Mortons Media Group Ltd why US publication of your new book has been pushed back to the end of April 2025 (as noted for example by Amazon and Barnes & Noble), and let us know. We are eager to provide your due royalties. That copies could reach UK customers from the printer in Malta before Christmas, and yet take another four months (or more?) to reach the New World, seems unusual.
 
Owens Z said:
Mr Sharp, on behalf of myself and your other would-be American customers, may I request a favor? Please ask your editorial contact at Mortons Media Group Ltd why US publication of your new book has been pushed back to the end of April 2025 (as noted for example by Amazon and Barnes & Noble), and let us know. We are eager to provide your due royalties. That copies could reach UK customers from the printer in Malta before Christmas, and yet take another four months (or more?) to reach the New World, seems unusual.
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I am a UK customer and did not get the book before Christmas, I am not bothered one iota.

I appreciate stuff often comes across as unfair, frankly that is the case in many ways. chilblast the people who 'built' mjy pc, have been chuckiong me crap for a long while now which makes me want to chew nails and spit rust but, that gets me nowhere.

We need to be grateful when things work and know when we are OK really. I think you will like the book when it arrives and you can get that Christmas morning feeling again.

Stay well Sir, you and yours.
 
I'm about 300 pages in right now, and I'm getting sad I'll be finished in just a few days. Can't believe that such a thorough, comprehensive study of such a mostly forgotten subject exists, or that it took 30 years for someone to write one. Amazing work, Dan!

On a vaguely related subject, is there any chance of a "Development and Politics" type book on the A4/V2 in the future? Every single book on the missile seems to follow the same basic trajectory (no pun intended) when it comes to design and development, and it seems like we haven't gotten the "real" story yet. Sure, there's been accounts written by some of the key players, but I have a hard time believing there isn't an absolute goldmine of unpublished material out there, especially considering how much material and paperwork was captured by the Allies after the war.
 
BigD said:
I'm about 300 pages in right now, and I'm getting sad I'll be finished in just a few days. Can't believe that such a thorough, comprehensive study of such a mostly forgotten subject exists, or that it took 30 years for someone to write one. Amazing work, Dan!

On a vaguely related subject, is there any chance of a "Development and Politics" type book on the A4/V2 in the future? Every single book on the missile seems to follow the same basic trajectory (no pun intended) when it comes to design and development, and it seems like we haven't gotten the "real" story yet. Sure, there's been accounts written by some of the key players, but I have a hard time believing there isn't an absolute goldmine of unpublished material out there, especially considering how much material and paperwork was captured by the Allies after the war.
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I'm glad you've enjoyed reading it - writing it was a very different experience from what I'm used to (in a good way)!

A4/V2 - most of my research on German WW2 activities has been in the field of aviation, whereas the A4/V2 was an army project. As such it'd be quite a tough topic to get started on. That's not to say that someone else couldn't do it though - I think there is indeed a lot of material out there, waiting to be researched.
 
Rhinocrates said:
I wonder what this could be? I guess I'll have to finish unwrapping it to find out...
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Good for you, Rhinocrates; enjoy. That the new HOTOL book could reach New Zealand weeks before it does North America is surprising. Author Dan Sharp disregarded my request of three weeks ago (maybe spooked by Foo Fighter), so nothing to do but continue waiting here.
 
Owens Z said:
Good for you, Rhinocrates; enjoy. That the new HOTOL book could reach New Zealand weeks before it does North America is surprising. Author Dan Sharp disregarded my request of three weeks ago (maybe spooked by Foo Fighter), so nothing to do but continue waiting here.
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I don't work in distribution and I don't really want to get involved in debating the whys and wherefores of it. In particular, I would rather not become a go-between in a debate between the publisher and a third party over distribution. It's simply not my place to do that.
My part of the process is the researching, writing and editing of books. I have no control over nor oversight of what happens once a book has gone to press and I've no desire to interrogate those who do. I'm sure this is the same for most authors and therefore, perhaps, should go without saying, but since you insist on dragging an answer out of me, there it is.
 
@Owens Z you are coming across a bit rude and entitled in this topic.

A quick Google search (https://www.mortonsbooks.co.uk/trade-sales) reveals the US distributors for Morton's books are Casemate, so I would take up any issues with release with them (https://www.casematepublishers.com/9781911704294/hotol-britains-spaceplane/)

The most likely explanation is the books are going to Casemate by sea in a container with other books on some kind of quarterly scheduled transatlantic shipment.

If you want the book sooner, you have to order from the country of origin and pay for air freight shipping. This happens with pretty much every book published ever.
 
newsdeskdan said:
I don't work in distribution and I don't really want to get involved in debating the whys and wherefores of it. In particular, I would rather not become a go-between in a debate between the publisher and a third party over distribution. It's simply not my place to do that.
My part of the process is the researching, writing and editing of books. I have no control over nor oversight of what happens once a book has gone to press and I've no desire to interrogate those who do. I'm sure this is the same for most authors and therefore, perhaps, should go without saying, but since you insist on dragging an answer out of me, there it is.
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overscan (PaulMM) said:
@Owens Z you are coming across a bit rude and entitled in this topic.
A quick Google search (https://www.mortonsbooks.co.uk/trade-sales) reveals the US distributors for Morton's books are Casemate, so I would take up any issues with release with them (https://www.casematepublishers.com/9781911704294/hotol-britains-spaceplane/)
The most likely explanation is the books are going to Casemate by sea in a container with other books on some kind of quarterly scheduled transatlantic shipment.
If you want the book sooner, you have to order from the country of origin and pay for air freight shipping. This happens with pretty much every book published ever.
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I apologize to you, Mr Sharp, for my over-eagerness approaching pushiness.

Unfortunately, Overscan, I'm not in a position to consider unusual (therefore expensive) methods to obtain the new HOTOL book. I will be more patient.
 
martinbayer said:
During the very early days of the concept I faintly remember seeing a small sketch of HOTOL (perhaps in Flight International?) that did indeed appear to have been heavily inspired by the Navaho design.
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From some slender pamphlet that was stuffed into my letterbox a couple of days ago...

In the early stages, alternative, less radical propulsion was studied and found to be not competitive. The concepts had side-mounted intakes.

Really, the book is amazing - compendious and full of surprises.
 

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Owens Z said:
I apologize to you, Mr Sharp, for my over-eagerness approaching pushiness.

Unfortunately, Overscan, I'm not in a position to consider unusual (therefore expensive) methods to obtain the new HOTOL book. I will be more patient.
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Understood. Postage to NZ is so expensive I usually only get review copies or ebooks.
 
Rhinocrates said:
From some slender pamphlet that was stuffed into my letterbox a couple of days ago...

In the early stages, alternative, less radical propulsion was studied and found to be not competitive. The concepts had side-mounted intakes.

Really, the book is amazing - compendious and full of surprises.
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Most excellent - eagerly looking forward to X-Mas in April here in SoCal! The configuration I seem to recall had half round inlets with shock cones above (double?) delta wings though, if memory serves.
 
Owens Z said:
I apologize to you, Mr Sharp, for my over-eagerness approaching pushiness.

Unfortunately, Overscan, I'm not in a position to consider unusual (therefore expensive) methods to obtain the new HOTOL book. I will be more patient.
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I had a lot of "fun" going over all this to about a half dozen people when I released my book with Mortons. Its all about distribution, the books when sold by Amazon, have to be put INTO the amazon distro. centres IN the USA (or wheverever it is) before dispatch. So mortons have to get about 2 tons of books to the USA, this is done by surface so it doesn't cost more than the books, which takes about 2months by the time the crates are put on a ship, and its sailed, and its docked, and unloaded and the crates driven by truck hundreds of miles to the Amazon centre. Then they are unpacked, and stored in the Amazon "system" whereafter they are dispatched.

Once they have done that, if you order one, you`ll get it in a couple of days, but if its a new book or undergoing reprint you have to do the entire shipping process all over again, from the other side of the world.

The only way around this is print-on-demand, which means second-rate paper quality, mediocre photo clarity and generally disappointing "feel". The printers Mortons use are among the best in the world and will last for ever if stored properly and looked after.

Everyone is so used to "point>click>buy>recieve" they forget that in most of the world a huge logistics chain is still in operation and many products do not work in the way we sometimes enjoy with the internet-shopping age.
 
newsdeskdan said:
I'm glad you've enjoyed reading it - writing it was a very different experience from what I'm used to (in a good way)!

A4/V2 - most of my research on German WW2 activities has been in the field of aviation, whereas the A4/V2 was an army project. As such it'd be quite a tough topic to get started on. That's not to say that someone else couldn't do it though - I think there is indeed a lot of material out there, waiting to be researched.
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A few words, if I may, about the V-2 (A-4). Among the tons of documents shipped to the U.S. at the end of the war, most were classified. Now that some document declassification has occurred, anomalies have immediately appeared. Although von Braun led the Americans to most of the hidden documents, it appears others remained hidden. One intelligence document states that he should be re-interrogated to get the whereabouts of this additional information. He did not respond as requested. Toward the end of the war, V-1 and V-2 launches were taken under SS control. SS General Hans Kammler had been appointed plenipotentiary over all German secret and special weapons. Walter Dornberger complained about his interference, as he called it.

A rumored rocket development beyond the A-4 has been confirmed. The A-9/A-10 was built. This two-stage rocket was designed for intercontinental range.

Many of the captured documents and some captured motion picture film ended up at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. Air Materiel Command was part of the Wright Air Development Center which had Intelligence (T-2) and Engineering (T-3) departments. A number of captured German aircraft recovered at the end of the war carried the marking T-2 followed by a number. These were later changed to FE (Foreign Equipment) markings, but retained the original number. The Russians were keen to know what the U.S. was doing.

SS General Kammler was intimately involved with all research and development projects. He disappeared at the end of the war. Rumors circulated that he had died by suicide in Bohemia. Shortly after the war, a German court declared him legally dead even though no body had been recovered. Recent document research shows he ended up in American custody. His name appears in a list of detainees to be interrogated. It appears he had copied everything to microfilm. See, The Hidden Nazi by Dean Reuter et al.
 
edwest4 said:
A few words, if I may, about the V-2 (A-4). Among the tons of documents shipped to the U.S. at the end of the war, most were classified. Now that some document declassification has occurred, anomalies have immediately appeared. Although von Braun led the Americans to most of the hidden documents, it appears others remained hidden. One intelligence document states that he should be re-interrogated to get the whereabouts of this additional information. He did not respond as requested. Toward the end of the war, V-1 and V-2 launches were taken under SS control. SS General Hans Kammler had been appointed plenipotentiary over all German secret and special weapons. Walter Dornberger complained about his interference, as he called it.

A rumored rocket development beyond the A-4 has been confirmed. The A-9/A-10 was built. This two-stage rocket was designed for intercontinental range.

Many of the captured documents and some captured motion picture film ended up at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio. Air Materiel Command was part of the Wright Air Development Center which had Intelligence (T-2) and Engineering (T-3) departments. A number of captured German aircraft recovered at the end of the war carried the marking T-2 followed by a number. These were later changed to FE (Foreign Equipment) markings, but retained the original number. The Russians were keen to know what the U.S. was doing.

SS General Kammler was intimately involved with all research and development projects. He disappeared at the end of the war. Rumors circulated that he had died by suicide in Bohemia. Shortly after the war, a German court declared him legally dead even though no body had been recovered. Recent document research shows he ended up in American custody. His name appears in a list of detainees to be interrogated. It appears he had copied everything to microfilm. See, The Hidden Nazi by Dean Reuter et al.
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There is very clear evidence in the I.G. Farben files that the firm was already (at board level) making significant plans and adjustments to allow for certain international trade difficulties to be avoided, its absolutely clear that the measures they took would only make any sense in a situation where the Allies took over management of Germany in a defeat scenario, this was (if I remember) in something like April 1944.

So I can well imagine that other persons with a good knowledge of the war`s progress were in possession of plenty of time to do things like start copying everything of use for the "next step" in their careers, probably overseas...
 
There were already German communities in South America. The FBI was given the additional task of monitoring German activities there through their Special Intelligence Service. See, The Origins of FBI Counterintelligence by Raymond Batvinis
 
martinbayer said:
Most excellent - eagerly looking forward to X-Mas in April here in SoCal! The configuration I seem to recall had half round inlets with shock cones above (double?) delta wings though, if memory serves.
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Aha! Reading a bit further. Wedge rather than biconic inlets but overwing, and as a bonus, an axisymmetric nose inlet too.

BTW, the nose inlet appeared on this 2016 BAE Systems study for a hypersonic strike aircraft using RE's technology and a SABRE demonstrator for Skylon c. 2018.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GogD5cSz4c&ab_channel=Aviaci%C3%B3nGeneral
 

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The K2 said:
This happened before. I can see B&N change the release date too
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Weird, when you consider that in the UK the book is available, new, not only from Amazon(.co.uk) but also from 19 other vendors: Speedyhen UK, ChironMediaLtd, Red Pebble Products, Books etc, Smaller World Future, UKPaperbackshop, SerendipityBooksLtd etc.
As mentioned above, I don't know what's going on but I do hope that those concerned with US distribution can remedy the situation soon.
 
I used to have good luck with pre-ordering specialty UK-published aviation and naval books on Amazon, but the last few years, they keep on pushing back release dates farther and farther, even when the books are already available in most of the world. I buy a lot of books published by Crecy, Seaforth, and Morton, but I usually end up buying them from smaller sellers on Amazon, or on EvilBay. Yes, the books can take a week or two to arrive, but the "little guys" all do a better job at protecting books for shipment, and it's not like Jeff Bezos needs any more of my money, either.
 
So have I, but then the UK is just across the North Sea for me. At the moment, I am paying a small premium on some books as a token of my appreciation of the bookshop in Eindhoven. Or I just visit the place, because there's always something rather good I wasn't looking for.
 
Designing the Vulcan

Order placed 23 August 2024

Arriving 22 March

This keeps changing though and probably will again from experience.
 
I pre-ordered with the publisher. In their acknowledgement they cautioned the deliveries would be slower around Xmas and could take 5 to 8 weeks. Assuming that it was posted around Xmas, it took 8 weeks to get from the UK to New Zealand. The usual postage of books from the UK takes a couple of weeks, from the US about 6.
 
RocketJavelin said:
Sorry. I can at least confirm it’s finished now!
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No worries mate, not complaining.

These marvels get done in the time it takes, publishing and printing extra yo say nothing of shipping.

Very lucky to have such as yourself and others here writing and collating data that for myself, would drive me into crossed eyes and insomnia by now.

As is said on any military range, "In your own time, go on"...

Thank you, Sir.
 
Foo Fighter said:
No worries mate, not complaining.

These marvels get done in the time it takes, publishing and printing extra yo say nothing of shipping.

Very lucky to have such as yourself and others here writing and collating data that for myself, would drive me into crossed eyes and insomnia by now.

As is said on any military range, "In your own time, go on"...

Thank you, Sir.
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You’re very welcome! Remiss of me not to thank you for ordering.
 

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