HOTOL: Britain's Spaceplane by Dan Sharp

[newsdeskdan]

The Hotol book is frankly a bit of a monster (at 424 pages)!

 

[FighterJock]

Certainly is a big book dan. Starting to count the days down when I get my own copy arrives.

 

[scautomoton]

Look what the Postman just handed to me! Good work @newsdeskdan she's a monster! And a signed copy too.

 

[newsdeskdan]

Look what the Postman just handed to me! Good work @newsdeskdan she's a monster! And a signed copy too.

I'm glad to see that it reached you before Christmas! I hope you find it interesting.

 

[scautomoton]

I had a very quick flick through it, as you mentioned there looks to be almost too much information in there! I look forward to ignoring the family at some point over the next 2 weeks so I can absorb it all.

 

[newsdeskdan]

I had a very quick flick through it, as you mentioned there looks to be almost too much information in there! I look forward to ignoring the family at some point over the next 2 weeks so I can absorb it all.

I had a ridiculous number of period documents to work from - and practically every surviving member of the Hotol team available to answer questions - so it should in theory be quite comprehensive!

 

[Foo Fighter]

That is one heck of a work rate, Sir. Mind you keep an eye on yourself too please.

 

[newsdeskdan]

That is one heck of a work rate, Sir. Mind you keep an eye on yourself too please.

It might appear as though I'm working myself to death but the publication of three big hardbacks so close together has resulted more by accident than design. I did most of my research for the Hotol book back in 2018-2019, then work on it slowed considerably for the next four years while I tackled subjects that were easier and quicker to do for various reasons.

Messerschmitt Me 309 Development & Politics was completed, from my side, by mid-2023 but on the engine side Calum was hampered by certain archives refusing to allow access. I then switched to writing Secret Projects of the Luftwaffe (another 70k+ word project). When that was done - finished November 2023, published December - I started on Messerschmitt Me 328 Development & Politics.

Calum then started to make some progress on Me 309, so both that and Me 328 came together in parallel. In early March 2024, I decided that I needed to really knuckle down on Hotol - so I started work on that as Me 309 and Me 328 were entering the page design phase.

Me 309 and Me 328 were published on the same day in May 2024 and Hotol was, as I've said, fully written by the end of August - then entering two months of vetting from BAE Systems. In the meantime, I started on my next (as yet unrevealed) book as well as a second longer-term project. Vetting of Hotol ended at the end of October IIRC and production/page design was then wrapped up. Hence three big hardbacks in one seven-month period (May-December 2024).

Exactly when my next book will come out I'm not sure. It was slated for January 2025 but it's not going to make that.

 

[TsrJoe]

Arrived this morning (that's my Christmas reading sorted) truly a magnum opus on the subject. It is truly fascinating seeing how the Hotol design evolved from initial concept. Brilliant work Dan

 

[newsdeskdan]

Arrived this morning (that's my Christmas reading sorted) truly a magnum opus on the subject. It is truly fascinating seeing how the Hotol design evolved from initial concept. Brilliant work Dan

Thanks - one of the key aspects of Hotol that I wanted to nail down was the design evolution. Viewed as a bunch of promotional leaflets, publicity photos, conference reports and other publicly available material, Hotol appears to exist in a bewildering variety of different forms - some longer, others shorter, some in between.

However, the design and development process followed a very clear path and it did prove possible to show what changed, when it changed and why it changed throughout the project's duration from the early 80s to the early- to mid-1990s.

 

[Rhinocrates]

Thanks - one of the key aspects of Hotol that I wanted to nail down was the design evolution. Viewed as a bunch of promotional leaflets, publicity photos, conference reports and other publicly available material, Hotol appears to exist in a bewildering variety of different forms - some longer, others shorter, some in between.

However, the design and development process followed a very clear path and it did prove possible to show what changed, when it changed and why it changed throughout the project's duration from the early 80s to the early- to mid-1990s.

Your book on MUSTARD was a revelation as it showed all the iterations of that design. I never would have guessed that there were so many and often so diverse. It will probably take a little while longer to get to the antipodes, so I am expecting it some time in January.

 

[newsdeskdan]

Your book on MUSTARD was a revelation as it showed all the iterations of that design. I never would have guessed that there were so many and often so diverse. It will probably take a little while longer to get to the antipodes, so I am expecting it some time in January.

The guy who did most of the MUSTARD drawings, Gerald David 'Dave' Walley, also worked on potential Hotol alternatives (some actual Hotols but with different propulsion systems, others Hotol-like vehicles and others no longer visually identifiable as Hotol derivatives) - in parallel to the core Hotol team. British Aerospace wanted to be certain that the RB.545-powered horizontal take-off Hotol configuration was the best possible means of achieving its mission goals.

This book includes an entire chapter, fully illustrated of course, on those designs.

 

[Archibald]

Good, this mean that MUSTARD and HOTOL were loosely related. Which is not exactly a surprise (1967 is close enough from 1982 for both to fit in the same engineers careers).

 

[Owens Z]

Your book on MUSTARD was a revelation as it showed all the iterations of that design. I never would have guessed that there were so many and often so diverse. It will probably take a little while longer to get to the antipodes, so I am expecting it some time in January.

Arrived this morning (that's my Christmas reading sorted) truly a magnum opus on the subject. It is truly fascinating seeing how the Hotol design evolved from initial concept. Brilliant work Dan

I too prize my copy of Dan Sharp's 2016 book British Secret Projects 5: Britain's Space Shuttle, about the fascinating MUSTARD vehicle. But for the final version of MUSTARD (pp228-230,255), the perfected version that all previous iterations had built up to, the version illustrated on the front cover, no weights are provided, unlike for previous iterations. Yeesh! So readers like me interested in what the final decision was for the vehicle's propellant fraction were out of luck.

I'm glad that UK customers have been receiving their copies of the brand-new HOTOL: Britain's Spaceplane in time for Christmas, as hoped. I look forward to getting my own copy of this book early next year.