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Aviation History
1989
1989 - 0764.PDF
•flank Hotol fights for life Time might be running out for Hotol, the reusable space launcher that British Aerospace hopes will slash the cost of placing a satellite in orbit. A senior company official warns that, if foreign interests fail to take a stake in the project this year, commercial prospects for the trans- atmospheric vehicle would be damaged. Dr Robert Parkinson, BAe's manager of future launch systems, says: "We are losing our opportunity steadily the more this drags on. To keep Hotel's momentum and recover Government interest we must demonstrate we can put a collaborative agreement together." Unmanned, air-breathing in the atmo sphere, and almost totally reusable, Hotol could cut satellite launch costs to one-fifth of those incurred using the US Space Shuttle, says BAe. Its development cost, however, which BAe estimates at $6 billion, is more than BAe or the UK Government are prepared to bear alone. British Aerospace needs interna tional partners if its reusable space launcher is to get off the drawing board. Alan Postle- thwaite assesses its latest efforts. The UK Government says that it would consider providing funds if BAe finds foreign partners, but in this BAe has been unsuccessful. One reason, says BAe, is an unhelpful attitude on the part of the UK Government, which has not been as support ive of a domestic venture as other European governments might be. However, the company also admits that the radical nature of Hotol's design, which centres on a secret propulsion system, has been responsible for some of the scepticism in Europe. Dr Parkinson says that talks with a "number" of Hotol combines air-breathing and rocket propulsion potential European partners are taking place. BAe predicts that there will be a demand for at least 50 Hotol launches annually early in the next century, each placing seven to ten tonnes of hardware in orbit and costing $5 million. The 275-tonne Hotol would operate from airport-style runways, and use atmo spheric air followed by on-board liquid oxygen as the oxidant for its hydrogen- burning propulsion system. Dr Parkinson believes that, although Hotol would not require subsidies to make it a profitable venture, a Government financial stake would be desirable to give it political protection from any heavily-subsidised competition that might emerge. He foresees competition for launch business between a European Hotol and advanced disposable launchers from the USA and elsewhere. A fusion of Hotol with the USA's trans- atmospheric vehicle effort, the National Aerospaceplane (NASP) being advanced by the Department of Defense and NASA, is all 34 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 25 March 1989
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