0:00:02 > 0:00:04Deep in the Oxfordshire countryside,
0:00:04 > 0:00:08a group of British rocket scientists are making the final checks
0:00:08 > 0:00:11before testing an experimental rocket engine.
0:00:15 > 0:00:16Consol armed.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22Defying all conventional wisdom,
0:00:22 > 0:00:25one man has pursued a dream his entire working life.
0:00:27 > 0:00:31Lead engineer Alan Bond believes he is now on the threshold
0:00:31 > 0:00:35of realising his dream - to build a revolutionary spacecraft
0:00:35 > 0:00:38that achieves Earth orbit in a single leap.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41Three, two, one...
0:00:41 > 0:00:42Into sequence.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47If their calculations are correct,
0:00:47 > 0:00:53their revolutionary design will herald by new era in space flight.
0:00:53 > 0:00:55WHIRRING
0:01:11 > 0:01:15This is the story of how a small and talented group
0:01:15 > 0:01:19of British engineers overcame personal adversity,
0:01:19 > 0:01:21shrugged off government intransigence
0:01:21 > 0:01:25and defeated the Official Secrets Act to pursue a dream.
0:01:33 > 0:01:37A dream that began in a boy's back garden shed.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41ROCK MUSIC PLAYS
0:01:58 > 0:02:01It's traditional in Britain that all things start in a shed.
0:02:03 > 0:02:07And we've kept up a long tradition on that.
0:02:07 > 0:02:11Alan Bond's passion for space travel began at an early age.
0:02:12 > 0:02:15The background really starts back in the 1960s.
0:02:15 > 0:02:20Going back to my childhood days, I sort of looked at Dan Dare and saw
0:02:20 > 0:02:24that Dan Dare was not constrained to messing about on planet Earth,
0:02:24 > 0:02:26he had a whole solar system at his disposal.
0:02:26 > 0:02:28Since those days,
0:02:28 > 0:02:32I've always felt that the human race has got much more ahead of it
0:02:32 > 0:02:36than just being confined to the surface of one little messy planet.
0:02:37 > 0:02:42As a teenager, I began to build my own rockets and really got to grips
0:02:42 > 0:02:46with what the problems were of getting into space.
0:02:47 > 0:02:51It very quickly became apparent that rockets were very limited
0:02:51 > 0:02:52in what they can actually do.
0:02:54 > 0:02:56And from a very, very early stage,
0:02:56 > 0:03:00I realised that we weren't going to get Dan Dare
0:03:00 > 0:03:04out of the existing sort of rockets, we've got to have something better.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07- RUMBLING - This is a new sound.
0:03:07 > 0:03:09The sound of a space age.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11The sound of the Blue Streak rocket.
0:03:11 > 0:03:15Nonetheless, the possibility existed for a long time throughout the 1960s
0:03:16 > 0:03:19that if we could just make the rocket engine a little bit better,
0:03:19 > 0:03:23a little bit more efficient, we might be able to come up with
0:03:23 > 0:03:24an overall vehicle
0:03:24 > 0:03:29which did not have to throw chunks of it away to go into orbit.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32The idea was out there that we could and should do better.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36As it happened, we didn't get very far with that.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39All around the world, many people realised that rockets
0:03:39 > 0:03:42in the form that we'd got them were just not going to deliver
0:03:42 > 0:03:45in the long term the kind of transport technology
0:03:45 > 0:03:46we were looking for.
0:03:46 > 0:03:51So virtually every space company in the world was trying to do better.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56This is where a rather fortuitous sequence of events occurred.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59Back in the very early '80s,
0:03:59 > 0:04:03we had a meeting that was organised by the French.
0:04:03 > 0:04:07The French wanted to come over and tell us their plans for Ariane 5.
0:04:08 > 0:04:14They had plans to put a winged mini shuttle on top of it called Hermes.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17Alan and I, who'd known one another for a long time,
0:04:17 > 0:04:19sat at the back of this meeting
0:04:19 > 0:04:22and we said, "This is Dinosaur reinvented,
0:04:22 > 0:04:26"the 1950s United States Air Force thing.
0:04:26 > 0:04:29"There must be a better way of entry in the 21st century
0:04:29 > 0:04:32"than going with this antique technology."
0:04:43 > 0:04:45In round about 1984,
0:04:45 > 0:04:48I had a meeting with Bob Parkinson
0:04:48 > 0:04:52and John Scott-Scott from Rolls-Royce in my office.
0:04:52 > 0:04:57Well, the story was that Alan had been working on something quietly.
0:04:57 > 0:04:59Nobody was quite sure what it was.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05I'd always been interested in pushing propulsion much harder.
0:05:05 > 0:05:09Whilst the solar system and trips to the moon represent a serious challenge,
0:05:09 > 0:05:12I'd been interested right from my earliest days
0:05:12 > 0:05:14in going much further than that
0:05:14 > 0:05:17and that drew me into more advanced propulsion, nuclear propulsion.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23One of the things that came out of those studies is that
0:05:23 > 0:05:25if you have a hot nuclear reactor on a rocket
0:05:25 > 0:05:27and you have cold liquid hydrogen,
0:05:27 > 0:05:32I realised that you could replace the nuclear reactor with hot air at roundabout Mach 5.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35And that opened up the prospect of a whole new range of engines
0:05:35 > 0:05:37that no-one had considered before.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41But then one day he turned up at our house, literally, at home...
0:05:42 > 0:05:44And he said, "I want to talk to you
0:05:44 > 0:05:47"about a possible new propulsion system
0:05:47 > 0:05:53"that could actually sort of completely revolutionise rocketry as we know it."
0:05:53 > 0:05:57Alan's visionary thinking had come at the right time.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00The world was growing tired of the ever-mounting cost of reaching space.
0:06:02 > 0:06:04The world was beginning to suffer
0:06:04 > 0:06:08from the cost of launching satellites more and more,
0:06:08 > 0:06:12because more and more people wanted to put up small clusters,
0:06:12 > 0:06:14communication things, land resources.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18All the usual things, which at the moment, and still to this day,
0:06:18 > 0:06:21are being launched by totally expendable rockets.
0:06:21 > 0:06:24Nothing comes back except bits of wreckage.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27To reach orbit, conventional rockets burn tons of hydrogen
0:06:27 > 0:06:29and oxygen every second.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32But when the fuel is spent, empty tanks and rockets
0:06:32 > 0:06:36are simply jettisoned to burn up in the planet's atmosphere.
0:06:37 > 0:06:42- MAN ON RADIO:- Booster officer, confirm staging a good solid rocket booster separation.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45Shut down. Sierra-D's have shut down. BDM fire.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53What took thousands of man hours to make
0:06:53 > 0:06:56has a working life measured in seconds.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04So, people wanted cheaper launching things
0:07:04 > 0:07:06and the only way to make it really cheap
0:07:06 > 0:07:08is to make it like an airliner.
0:07:08 > 0:07:13So I tinkered together the blue book and passed it to John
0:07:13 > 0:07:15to find out what his interest was going to be on it.
0:07:15 > 0:07:19It's pages and pages of theory and numbers. We turn to the back.
0:07:19 > 0:07:21Here we are, paragraph seven, conclusion.
0:07:21 > 0:07:26"The report has outlined a proposal for an air-breathing engine
0:07:26 > 0:07:29"which may allow a single-stage-to-orbit
0:07:29 > 0:07:31"space transportation system to be realised."
0:07:31 > 0:07:35Now, normally if you talk to people about that sort of concept,
0:07:35 > 0:07:37they will tell you it can't be done.
0:07:39 > 0:07:46I examined all the rocket propellants that were available, including some you wouldn't like to work with.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50And you just cannot hack it with rockets.
0:07:50 > 0:07:52So you've got to make use of the atmosphere,
0:07:52 > 0:07:54same as any other aircraft does.
0:07:54 > 0:07:58Alan turned to his old friend Bob Parkinson for help.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03Alan rang me up to ask me a question about propellant chemistry
0:08:03 > 0:08:06and in the discussion over the phone, we said,
0:08:06 > 0:08:09"It sounds like we've been working on parallel lines.
0:08:09 > 0:08:11"We ought to have a meeting together."
0:08:11 > 0:08:14Bob was thinking more about the actual vehicle side of things
0:08:14 > 0:08:17and I was thinking more of the propulsion side of things.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21The great thing about Bob is that he'd moved to British Aerospace
0:08:21 > 0:08:25and he also, because of his very innovative character,
0:08:25 > 0:08:27had the ear of the senior management.
0:08:27 > 0:08:31As a consequence, he was able to get the project into British Aerospace.
0:08:31 > 0:08:34And out of that came the HOTOL project.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42The basic idea was simple enough.
0:08:42 > 0:08:46Conventional rockets burn a mixture of liquid oxygen and hydrogen.
0:08:46 > 0:08:50Hydrogen is an ideal fuel - it's light
0:08:50 > 0:08:52and generates huge amounts of thrust.
0:08:52 > 0:08:57In comparison, the oxygen it needs to burn is bulky and very heavy.
0:08:59 > 0:09:04But Alan Bond thought he saw a way to cut HOTOL's need to store that oxygen on board.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10It was obvious the atmosphere has to play a part in getting us into space.
0:09:11 > 0:09:16Bond's breakthrough was the idea that HOTOL could steal oxygen
0:09:16 > 0:09:17from the atmosphere.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23And the whole idea of this was single-stage-to-orbit.
0:09:23 > 0:09:24That was the key bottom line.
0:09:24 > 0:09:29Now, to do it, if you look at the amount of work you've got to do
0:09:29 > 0:09:33to get into orbit, it says use as much oxygen as you can
0:09:33 > 0:09:36from any source except what's on the vehicle.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39And so you drive yourself into the area of,
0:09:39 > 0:09:43"How far can we go as an air-breathing machine?"
0:09:43 > 0:09:46And therefore you lean heavily on gas turbine technology,
0:09:46 > 0:09:49which is well-established,
0:09:49 > 0:09:52and only use rocket technology when, putting it simply,
0:09:52 > 0:09:54you've run out of air.
0:09:54 > 0:09:59Together, the three engineers secured funding from the UK government,
0:09:59 > 0:10:01British Aerospace and Rolls-Royce.
0:10:05 > 0:10:06In those first heady days,
0:10:06 > 0:10:09Alan's dream looked as though it was becoming a reality.
0:10:12 > 0:10:15Bond's theory worked fine on paper,
0:10:15 > 0:10:18but experiments in the lab soon brought disappointment and delay.
0:10:22 > 0:10:24There were several problems with HOTOL.
0:10:24 > 0:10:26One was the actual design of the aeroplane itself,
0:10:26 > 0:10:28which was a magnificent attempt.
0:10:28 > 0:10:33The other was the engine. There were issues over the engine.
0:10:33 > 0:10:35To reach orbit from sea level,
0:10:35 > 0:10:40HOTOL's engines would have to work flawlessly at extreme temperatures.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44The air comes in at 1,000 degrees Centigrade as it slows down
0:10:44 > 0:10:46and you can't put that through a compressor,
0:10:46 > 0:10:48in fact, it's very difficult
0:10:48 > 0:10:51to design the airframe to stand it for very long.
0:10:51 > 0:10:55The key Alan came up with was to take that air coming in,
0:10:55 > 0:10:59accept it in heat-resisting duct for the first little bit
0:10:59 > 0:11:02and then cool it - drastically.
0:11:08 > 0:11:10Alan's first choice
0:11:10 > 0:11:12was to cool this thing right down
0:11:12 > 0:11:17to just above the liquefaction point of the air which we breathe.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20That's a long way down, but it could be done.
0:11:20 > 0:11:22Bond's second breakthrough
0:11:22 > 0:11:25was how he planned to cool the air entering HOTOL's rocket engines.
0:11:25 > 0:11:29You've got hydrogen on board this vehicle,
0:11:29 > 0:11:30which is a wonderful coolant.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33By using HOTOL's liquid hydrogen fuel
0:11:33 > 0:11:36to cool and compress the incoming air,
0:11:36 > 0:11:39HOTOL only had to carry small amounts of oxygen
0:11:39 > 0:11:41for when the vehicle reached space,
0:11:41 > 0:11:45saving weight that could be used to carry cargo.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51What we've got here is a typical experimental heat exchanger
0:11:51 > 0:11:53from the HOTOL programme.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57The liquid nitrogen went into these tubes at the end,
0:11:57 > 0:12:00all the way through these fine tubes and out the other side.
0:12:00 > 0:12:02The air flowed through there.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05When we looked at the transit time
0:12:05 > 0:12:08for air going through the heat exchanger or pre-cooler,
0:12:08 > 0:12:12the answer comes out between one and two milliseconds.
0:12:12 > 0:12:15That's a pretty short time for all this heat to be removed - bump!
0:12:18 > 0:12:21The first experiments we did on rapid cooling
0:12:21 > 0:12:24showed us that within literally 4-5 seconds,
0:12:24 > 0:12:28the heat exchanger module would frost up solid -
0:12:28 > 0:12:30no air flow through it at all.
0:12:30 > 0:12:34It highlighted the key problem was not so much heat exchange,
0:12:34 > 0:12:36which we believed we could do,
0:12:36 > 0:12:39but how do we tackle the frosting problem?
0:12:41 > 0:12:45Frost control wasn't the only problem the HOTOL team encountered.
0:12:45 > 0:12:49Flaws in the airframe design soon became glaringly obvious.
0:12:50 > 0:12:54Richard Varvill, a young aerospace engineer joining the team,
0:12:54 > 0:12:57grappled with the spacecraft's aerodynamics.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01We'd basically made a mistake right at square one,
0:13:01 > 0:13:04which was to put the engines on the base of the fuselage.
0:13:04 > 0:13:09You have to go back to the origins of the HOTOL project to understand how this problem came about,
0:13:09 > 0:13:12we came from a background of vertical take-off rockets,
0:13:12 > 0:13:14where, as you know, the engines are always on the base of the rocket
0:13:14 > 0:13:17and it ascends vertically and you have the tankage above it.
0:13:17 > 0:13:21On HOTOL, that seemed like a good starting point,
0:13:21 > 0:13:24so we ended up with this long, slender hydrogen tank
0:13:24 > 0:13:26sticking out ahead of the wings
0:13:26 > 0:13:30because it gave a very structurally efficient configuration
0:13:30 > 0:13:31for the airframe.
0:13:34 > 0:13:38However, what we found was this very severe CGCP mismatch.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43When fully fuelled, the weight of the hydrogen
0:13:43 > 0:13:47balanced the weight of the engines at the rear of the craft.
0:13:47 > 0:13:49But as the fuel was used up in flight,
0:13:49 > 0:13:51the centre of gravity of the craft
0:13:51 > 0:13:54shifted backwards towards the engines.
0:13:54 > 0:13:56The centre of pressure, however, was forced forward,
0:13:56 > 0:13:59leading to flight instability.
0:13:59 > 0:14:05Or, as aerospace engineers call it, a CGCP mismatch.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08To resolve this, we ended up making a lot of undesirable changes
0:14:08 > 0:14:09to the aeroplane
0:14:09 > 0:14:12and in the process, we lost, we reckon,
0:14:12 > 0:14:14about four tonnes of potential payload.
0:14:14 > 0:14:21'T-10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4...
0:14:21 > 0:14:24'We've gone for main engine start. We have main engine start.'
0:14:24 > 0:14:26From the outset, Britain had designed HOTOL
0:14:26 > 0:14:29as a replacement for NASA's space shuttle.
0:14:31 > 0:14:32'America's first space shuttle.
0:14:32 > 0:14:35'And the shuttle has cleared the tower.'
0:14:35 > 0:14:38Colombia had successfully launched a year earlier
0:14:38 > 0:14:42with the specific goal of carrying payloads into space.
0:14:42 > 0:14:44'We have main-engine start.'
0:14:45 > 0:14:51'2, 1, booster ignition. And the final lift-off of Discovery.'
0:14:53 > 0:14:56Whereas a space shuttle could carry 22 tonnes of cargo,
0:14:56 > 0:15:02HOTOL's design capacity of 8 tonnes had now been reduced by half.
0:15:14 > 0:15:20Unlike HOTOL, NASA's shuttle was a two-stage-to-orbit vehicle
0:15:20 > 0:15:23with the vast majority of the rocket discarded
0:15:23 > 0:15:24within minutes of take-off.
0:15:31 > 0:15:34NASA described its space transportation system
0:15:34 > 0:15:36as a kind of reusable space truck,
0:15:36 > 0:15:40with each vehicle designed for a lifespan of 100 launches.
0:15:42 > 0:15:46'3, 2, 1...'
0:15:46 > 0:15:49In reality, in the 30 years the programme ran,
0:15:49 > 0:15:53only a total of 135 flights were ever made.
0:16:02 > 0:16:04But the shuttle remains
0:16:04 > 0:16:07the only winged, manned and reusable spacecraft
0:16:07 > 0:16:11to have successfully reached orbit and landed again.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14'Main gear touchdown.'
0:16:26 > 0:16:28'Nose gear touchdown.'
0:16:28 > 0:16:32The shuttle programme may not have lived up to its original billing,
0:16:32 > 0:16:36but it had the overriding merit that it actually worked.
0:16:36 > 0:16:39With all its technical difficulties and its payload capacity halved,
0:16:39 > 0:16:43the economic case for HOTOL was now on shaky ground.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46We do need to have a look at greater commercial involvement
0:16:46 > 0:16:50and consider really exactly what the strategy is
0:16:50 > 0:16:52before we go into this highly expensive,
0:16:52 > 0:16:55I think, not altogether well-directed space effort.
0:16:55 > 0:16:59Despite Alan Bond's best efforts to persuade ministers
0:16:59 > 0:17:03of the technical and commercial viability of his project,
0:17:03 > 0:17:04they remained unconvinced.
0:17:06 > 0:17:09The man in the street expects ministers
0:17:09 > 0:17:11to evaluate these hugely expensive claims,
0:17:11 > 0:17:15and until and unless these enthusiasts,
0:17:15 > 0:17:18at home and abroad, satisfy us there's good value for money,
0:17:18 > 0:17:20I think it's the duty of ministers to say,
0:17:20 > 0:17:24"We admire your enthusiasm, but that bill is simply too much."
0:17:25 > 0:17:29With all government funding for HOTOL now gone,
0:17:29 > 0:17:31Alan's dream was in tatters.
0:17:31 > 0:17:35As a last resort, he sought backing from Europe.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41He intended to take his engine design
0:17:41 > 0:17:45to the European Space Agency and continue his work there.
0:17:46 > 0:17:50But once again, the government stood in his way.
0:17:53 > 0:17:55Following meetings between Bob and myself
0:17:55 > 0:17:57and some of the other people involved,
0:17:57 > 0:18:03it was agreed that I would apply for a patent on the RB545 engine.
0:18:04 > 0:18:07That immediately brought a classification.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14That was a disaster to the HOTOL project.
0:18:16 > 0:18:19It meant that we couldn't talk to the European Space Agency
0:18:19 > 0:18:23and we were never able to disclose at the time to the European Space Agency
0:18:23 > 0:18:26how this engine worked and what the advances in it were.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30When the thing was classified "secret,"
0:18:30 > 0:18:33it immediately brings it to "military use only."
0:18:33 > 0:18:37That meant that I couldn't talk to anyone about it,
0:18:37 > 0:18:41and even got leaned on not to talk to anyone in the UK about it,
0:18:41 > 0:18:44including people at Rolls-Royce and British Aerospace.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47I had to fight that, otherwise there would have been no project.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50I was successful, but for the period up till 1993,
0:18:50 > 0:18:53many years after the project had actually finished,
0:18:53 > 0:18:55the engine remained classified.
0:18:57 > 0:19:01In pursuit of his boyhood dream, Alan had started his career
0:19:01 > 0:19:04working on Britain's first attempt to put a payload into space.
0:19:06 > 0:19:08On 28th October 1971,
0:19:08 > 0:19:11Black Arrow successfully placed into orbit Prospero,
0:19:11 > 0:19:15an experimental satellite designed to test
0:19:15 > 0:19:19the effects of space on communication satellites.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27Ironically, the Black Arrow programme had already been cancelled
0:19:27 > 0:19:31three months earlier by the government, on economic grounds.
0:19:32 > 0:19:37To this day, Prospero remains the only British satellite
0:19:37 > 0:19:40to have been launched by a British-built rocket.
0:19:42 > 0:19:47For Alan, this was the start of a long and difficult relationship
0:19:47 > 0:19:49with government funding for UK space projects.
0:19:51 > 0:19:56That is a problem in Britain. Britain these days is not visionary.
0:19:56 > 0:19:58There is a world out there.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01The earth is a very, very tiny place in our universe,
0:20:01 > 0:20:05and I think you need a certain amount of scientific knowledge
0:20:05 > 0:20:08to appreciate that, and I think, by and large in Britain,
0:20:08 > 0:20:10scientific knowledge is now rather a limited commodity.
0:20:12 > 0:20:17Britain had closed the door on an active role in space vehicles,
0:20:17 > 0:20:20and with it, independent access to space.
0:20:27 > 0:20:29In America, however,
0:20:29 > 0:20:33NASA was still pursuing the concept of a single-stage-to-orbit vehicle.
0:20:34 > 0:20:37In 1986, as HOTOL was still underway,
0:20:37 > 0:20:40President Reagan had announced
0:20:40 > 0:20:43the United States' National Aerospace Program.
0:20:50 > 0:20:52But rather than looking at
0:20:52 > 0:20:55exotic and unproven engine designs like Alan Bond,
0:20:55 > 0:20:59NASA wanted to build on the relative success of its Shuttle program.
0:21:03 > 0:21:06It was firmly convinced that rockets were still capable
0:21:06 > 0:21:09of propelling a spacecraft to orbit in a single stage.
0:21:13 > 0:21:19Even as the United Kingdom was cancelling HOTOL in 1989,
0:21:19 > 0:21:21in America, the government commissioned
0:21:21 > 0:21:25a series of technology demonstrators for a single-stage-to-orbit vehicle.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32Whilst in the UK, Alan struggled to find backers
0:21:32 > 0:21:34for a successor to the HOTOL project,
0:21:34 > 0:21:39in the US, Lockheed Martin was building the X-33 prototype.
0:21:44 > 0:21:47The X-33 was never completed before it too was cancelled.
0:21:47 > 0:21:52But in stark contrast to the position of the British government,
0:21:52 > 0:21:54the United States continued to pursue its goal
0:21:54 > 0:21:58of a reusable single-stage-to-orbit vehicle.
0:22:15 > 0:22:16Back in the UK,
0:22:16 > 0:22:20in frustration at the government's unwillingness to fund
0:22:20 > 0:22:23or even permit a successor to the HOTOL project,
0:22:23 > 0:22:25Alan and two of his colleagues,
0:22:25 > 0:22:29Richard Varvill and John Scott-Scott, decided to go it alone.
0:22:30 > 0:22:34They formed a new company, Reaction Engines, to continue development.
0:22:37 > 0:22:42The fledgling company was based in Culham near Oxford,
0:22:42 > 0:22:44on the same site as the Joint European Torus
0:22:44 > 0:22:48where Alan had worked before transferring to the HOTOL project.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54The Joint European Torus is a research reactor
0:22:54 > 0:22:59designed to harness the power of nuclear fusion,
0:22:59 > 0:23:02the same energy that powers the sun.
0:23:03 > 0:23:06In such an environment, they rely heavily
0:23:06 > 0:23:08on computer modelling techniques
0:23:08 > 0:23:10to predict the behaviour of their experiments
0:23:10 > 0:23:13before trying them out for real.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16You could do an awful lot of modelling.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19You'd think that the aerospace business was the place
0:23:19 > 0:23:22that you'd learn that, but back in the 1970s,
0:23:22 > 0:23:24computers weren't very available.
0:23:24 > 0:23:26It took a long time to get onto a mainframe.
0:23:28 > 0:23:31Also, the actual analytical techniques that were used
0:23:31 > 0:23:34in the aerospace business at that time were very limited,
0:23:34 > 0:23:37so you tended to make things and break them,
0:23:37 > 0:23:40and make 'em and break 'em until they worked,
0:23:40 > 0:23:43whereas the Atomic Energy Authority were building things
0:23:43 > 0:23:46that, if you broke them, were actually quite dangerous,
0:23:46 > 0:23:49so they had come up with a great deal more modelling
0:23:49 > 0:23:52than the aerospace industry had.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01I was fortunate that when I came to Culham to work on fusion,
0:24:01 > 0:24:05I learned a lot about that, and I was able to apply that,
0:24:05 > 0:24:07so given, suddenly, a PC of my own,
0:24:07 > 0:24:13I found that I was already on my old Spectrum able to do an awful lot
0:24:13 > 0:24:16that was still being carried out, say, in British Aerospace.
0:24:16 > 0:24:18Using the techniques he had learned at JET,
0:24:18 > 0:24:22Alan was able to continue working on HOTOL's legacy
0:24:22 > 0:24:25without so much as a penny of government funding.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36When we finished with the HOTOL project,
0:24:36 > 0:24:40there were a number of outstanding issues.
0:24:40 > 0:24:44The computer modelling, sort of using ideal conditions,
0:24:44 > 0:24:47showed that there was tremendous actual potential behind the concept.
0:24:47 > 0:24:49But what we actually found
0:24:49 > 0:24:52when we'd come to wrapping all the metallic materials around it
0:24:52 > 0:24:55and the ceramics and so on, is a lot of that disappeared
0:24:55 > 0:24:59for all kinds of reasons, and for the first three or four years,
0:24:59 > 0:25:03the activity was simply to try and find out why we had done so badly
0:25:03 > 0:25:06with real engineering relative to the ideal.
0:25:06 > 0:25:09And that was down to the actual configuration of the aeroplane.
0:25:09 > 0:25:11We resolved that very quickly.
0:25:13 > 0:25:17Computer modelling allowed the team to question every assumption
0:25:17 > 0:25:19behind HOTOL's configuration,
0:25:19 > 0:25:21and redesign it from the ground up.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25We decided to literally start with a clean sheet of paper.
0:25:25 > 0:25:27And the way we did that was,
0:25:27 > 0:25:31we took the engines off the base of the aeroplane,
0:25:31 > 0:25:34and we put them actually onto the wing tips.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38With one bound, Jack was free
0:25:38 > 0:25:40and we got a very efficient solution to that problem.
0:25:40 > 0:25:44The solution was a complete overhaul of the airframe.
0:25:44 > 0:25:48The new craft was named Skylon.
0:25:49 > 0:25:51Although they had designed it,
0:25:51 > 0:25:55Bond's new company, Reaction Engines, would not build the plane,
0:25:55 > 0:25:59but develop the engines that would allow Skylon to fly.
0:26:10 > 0:26:11Whilst Bond continued to work
0:26:11 > 0:26:17on developing the original HOTOL concept, NASA changed tack.
0:26:17 > 0:26:23It abandoned rocket technology altogether.
0:26:23 > 0:26:27Instead, it turned to a development of jet-engine technology,
0:26:27 > 0:26:30called scramjet.
0:26:40 > 0:26:44Scramjets work much like a modern airliner,
0:26:44 > 0:26:49but use their own speed to compress air into their jet engines.
0:26:49 > 0:26:51Scramjets are air-breathers,
0:26:51 > 0:26:54that obtain oxygen from the air in which it's flying.
0:26:54 > 0:26:58This characteristic allows for much more aeroplane-like operations,
0:26:58 > 0:27:02with increased safety, affordability and flexibility.
0:27:07 > 0:27:10Scramjets are beautifully simple.
0:27:10 > 0:27:12They have no moving parts.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17A conventional jet has a series of blades
0:27:17 > 0:27:20to compress air into the engine.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23In a scramjet, however, there are no blades.
0:27:23 > 0:27:28The incoming air is compressed by the craft's sheer speed alone.
0:27:29 > 0:27:33But as engineers found, igniting fuel at Mach 5
0:27:33 > 0:27:37is about as hard as striking a match in a hurricane,
0:27:37 > 0:27:39and keeping it lit - harder still.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44Nevertheless, NASA was confident that scramjet technology
0:27:44 > 0:27:48would shape the future of manned space flight.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51The ultimate goal of hypersonics really is twofold.
0:27:51 > 0:27:56One is to reduce the cost for access to space.
0:27:56 > 0:28:00The second goal, and probably one that's further out,
0:28:00 > 0:28:01maybe 100 years out,
0:28:01 > 0:28:06but hypersonic commercial travel, I think, can be a reality someday,
0:28:06 > 0:28:10and going anywhere on the globe in just a few hours.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13Actuator on my mark.
0:28:13 > 0:28:15Three, two, one, mark.
0:28:18 > 0:28:22In 2004, NASA's X43 technology demonstrator
0:28:22 > 0:28:26set a new airspeed record for powered flight,
0:28:26 > 0:28:29reaching an incredible Mach 9.8.
0:28:30 > 0:28:35But scramjets can only function at velocities greater than Mach 4
0:28:35 > 0:28:37and must rely on chemical rockets
0:28:37 > 0:28:41to boost them up to their operating speed.
0:28:41 > 0:28:43As a result, NASA now doubts
0:28:43 > 0:28:47that a single-stage-to-orbit spacecraft will ever be achievable.
0:28:54 > 0:28:55Console on.
0:28:55 > 0:28:58WHIRRING
0:29:02 > 0:29:05Just as NASA was announcing the death knell
0:29:05 > 0:29:07for single-stage-to-orbit vehicles,
0:29:07 > 0:29:08back in the UK,
0:29:08 > 0:29:12Bond's team had made a breakthrough in their engine design.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16In 2004 we found an entirely new avenue
0:29:16 > 0:29:20which we could evolve with these engines.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23And the thermodynamics continues to evolve even now,
0:29:23 > 0:29:26so we are currently working on an engine
0:29:26 > 0:29:28which has half the fuel consumption
0:29:28 > 0:29:33of the SABRE engines that we designed in 1993 for the Skylon vehicle,
0:29:33 > 0:29:36which in itself was more than 50 per cent improvement
0:29:36 > 0:29:38over the engines in HOTOL.
0:29:38 > 0:29:41So I don't think we're near the end
0:29:41 > 0:29:44of what these engines are actually capable of at this point in time.
0:29:50 > 0:29:53To bring the original HOTOL concept to this stage
0:29:53 > 0:29:56had taken Alan's team some 15 years.
0:29:56 > 0:29:59Along the way, they'd had to overcome a series of obstacles,
0:29:59 > 0:30:02which might easily have broken a lesser man.
0:30:05 > 0:30:09When Alan first formed Reaction Engines to develop HOTOL's legacy,
0:30:09 > 0:30:13the engine he had designed had been classified Top Secret,
0:30:13 > 0:30:16and its key features patented.
0:30:16 > 0:30:19The actual patent restriction ended in 1993.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25The patent had actually been acquired by Rolls-Royce,
0:30:25 > 0:30:28for a finite period of time, and it was quite clear
0:30:28 > 0:30:31that no further development was going to take place on that engine.
0:30:33 > 0:30:37So I set out to find a way to circumvent the patent
0:30:37 > 0:30:41in order that we could actually complete the work on it.
0:30:41 > 0:30:44Now, I wrote the original patent, so I'd written it in a way
0:30:44 > 0:30:47that I didn't think it could be circumvented.
0:30:50 > 0:30:53But what we had found during the course of the work
0:30:53 > 0:30:57were a lot of thermodynamic nuances within the engine.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00And that meant that the engines were capable of things
0:31:00 > 0:31:04that in the 1980s I hadn't actually realised.
0:31:06 > 0:31:09Having overcome the legal obstacles,
0:31:09 > 0:31:12the team now faced a series of daunting technical challenges.
0:31:12 > 0:31:15We need the thrust-to-weight ratio of a rocket engine,
0:31:15 > 0:31:18but we need the fuel consumption of a jet engine.
0:31:18 > 0:31:21So we're basically trying to stitch these two technologies together,
0:31:21 > 0:31:23but in order to do that
0:31:23 > 0:31:26we need to develop these lightweight heat exchangers.
0:31:29 > 0:31:33The key to Skylon's revolutionary engine is its ability,
0:31:33 > 0:31:36like a jet engine, to compress incoming air.
0:31:36 > 0:31:38Then, like a rocket engine,
0:31:38 > 0:31:44to use that air to burn the on-board liquid hydrogen to create thrust.
0:31:46 > 0:31:49To do that, the compressed air must first be cooled
0:31:49 > 0:31:51until it nearly liquefies.
0:31:51 > 0:31:57And that's the bit that no-one has ever successfully done before.
0:31:57 > 0:31:59The SABRE engine...
0:31:59 > 0:32:04is effectively a jet engine and a rocket engine stitched together.
0:32:04 > 0:32:06In order to make this work,
0:32:06 > 0:32:09we need these very high-performance heat exchangers.
0:32:09 > 0:32:11It is the heat exchangers
0:32:11 > 0:32:15that make a single-stage-to-orbit vehicle possible.
0:32:15 > 0:32:17Nobody's ever made this type of product before.
0:32:17 > 0:32:22No-one's been able to make this type of product before.
0:32:26 > 0:32:29The heat exchanger works a bit like a conventional fridge.
0:32:29 > 0:32:34Liquid helium is passed through a series of very fine tubes.
0:32:34 > 0:32:39Air passing over the tubes is then instantly cooled.
0:32:39 > 0:32:41The problem Alan and his team faced
0:32:41 > 0:32:46was to manufacture a heat exchanger with as many tubes as possible.
0:32:46 > 0:32:49You can't just bend these tubes into any old shape.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52They're very unique items, they're unique to Reaction Engines,
0:32:52 > 0:32:57we've developed the manufacturing processes in order to build them.
0:32:57 > 0:32:59If you take one of these tubes in your hands
0:32:59 > 0:33:01you can very easily just break it in two.
0:33:01 > 0:33:05So actually forming them into the shapes we need
0:33:05 > 0:33:06is a very difficult challenge.
0:33:11 > 0:33:13The air is a very poor conductor of heat,
0:33:13 > 0:33:17so we have to do everything we can to strive for maximum compactness,
0:33:17 > 0:33:19to maximise the heat-transfer performance
0:33:19 > 0:33:21on the air side of the heat exchanger,
0:33:21 > 0:33:24so a large quantity of these tubular-flow channels
0:33:24 > 0:33:27of very small diameter
0:33:27 > 0:33:30improves the heat-transfer performance.
0:33:30 > 0:33:32Now, we've reached a practical limit
0:33:32 > 0:33:34on the compactness that we can achieve.
0:33:34 > 0:33:37That's where Reaction Engines is pushing the boundaries
0:33:37 > 0:33:41on compact, lightweight heat exchangers.
0:33:41 > 0:33:43The challenge here is to cool the air
0:33:43 > 0:33:45whilst avoiding the frosting problem
0:33:45 > 0:33:49that had bedevilled the original HOTOL project.
0:33:50 > 0:33:54It took the team years of research to develop a solution.
0:33:54 > 0:33:58But after their disastrous experience with Alan's HOTOL patent,
0:33:58 > 0:34:03the team has chosen to keep their latest technology as a trade secret.
0:34:05 > 0:34:08We've had a long research programme developing the technology
0:34:08 > 0:34:12to stop this pre-cooler clogging up with frost,
0:34:12 > 0:34:15and that is unique technology to Reaction Engines.
0:34:15 > 0:34:19Trade secrets are how most industries survive.
0:34:19 > 0:34:21We have a number of key technologies
0:34:21 > 0:34:25and rather than patent those, which basically declares it to the world
0:34:25 > 0:34:28how you've done it, what we do is
0:34:28 > 0:34:31we basically keep those secrets as trade secrets
0:34:31 > 0:34:32within Reaction Engines
0:34:32 > 0:34:37and only Reaction Engines' employees are familiar with that knowledge.
0:34:39 > 0:34:42The last major technical challenge facing Bond and his team
0:34:42 > 0:34:46was getting as much thrust as possible from Skylon's engines,
0:34:46 > 0:34:49all the way from the runway, right up to Earth orbit.
0:34:53 > 0:34:57Teaming up with Bristol University and Airborne Engineering,
0:34:57 > 0:35:00they're exploring techniques called altitude compensation
0:35:00 > 0:35:03to make their rocket nozzles ultra-efficient.
0:35:03 > 0:35:06Once upon a time you could have a small nozzle for sea level,
0:35:06 > 0:35:08throw that away at the end of the first stage
0:35:08 > 0:35:10and then have a bigger nozzle in the second stage,
0:35:10 > 0:35:12which suits higher altitude - throw that away,
0:35:12 > 0:35:15And on the third stage, have the biggest one that you can fit.
0:35:15 > 0:35:19So, the advantages that are gained by this altitude compensation
0:35:19 > 0:35:22are much more for a single stage, where you can't throw anything away.
0:35:34 > 0:35:37All rocket engines work by pushing hot gases through a nozzle
0:35:37 > 0:35:40to create the thrust needed to keep the rocket going.
0:35:43 > 0:35:45But as the rocket gets higher and higher,
0:35:45 > 0:35:48the size of the nozzle needs to get wider and wider
0:35:48 > 0:35:50to maintain maximum efficiency.
0:35:53 > 0:35:56Unlike the space shuttle, a single-stage-to-orbit vehicle
0:35:56 > 0:35:59does not have the luxury of throwing away nozzles
0:35:59 > 0:36:01with each booster stage,
0:36:01 > 0:36:05so that the right-sized nozzle is always used at any given altitude.
0:36:12 > 0:36:15The University of Bristol, to try and get round this problem,
0:36:15 > 0:36:18focuses on something called an expansion deflection nozzle.
0:36:18 > 0:36:19The idea is fairly simple,
0:36:19 > 0:36:23it's a fairly standard shape for the outer contour,
0:36:23 > 0:36:25but there's a plug up the middle
0:36:25 > 0:36:27which goes up the centre of the engine
0:36:27 > 0:36:30and causes a central void in the flow.
0:36:32 > 0:36:36As you get higher, it allows the flow to expand in towards the centre line
0:36:36 > 0:36:39so you end up with a more efficient engine.
0:36:39 > 0:36:42- Just about to do a firing. All ready?- Yes.
0:36:43 > 0:36:46BEEPING
0:36:51 > 0:36:55What we learned from these tests has been quite interesting.
0:36:55 > 0:36:59The rocket engine expansion ratio is bigger than the space shuttle,
0:36:59 > 0:37:01so the difference between the exit flow and the central flow
0:37:01 > 0:37:03is greater than the space shuttle.
0:37:03 > 0:37:05We ran that attached at 12 bar.
0:37:05 > 0:37:09The Space Shuttle needs to run at 200 bar to keep it attached.
0:37:09 > 0:37:12So we have managed to achieve some fairly impressive results.
0:37:24 > 0:37:26Having reached space,
0:37:26 > 0:37:30Skylon then faces the equally daunting task of returning again.
0:37:30 > 0:37:34The Shuttle famously depended on thousands of ceramic tiles
0:37:34 > 0:37:37to protect it from the intense heat caused by re-entry.
0:37:39 > 0:37:42The rocketeers needed a lighter-weight solution.
0:37:44 > 0:37:47They took their inspiration from an unlikely source -
0:37:47 > 0:37:50an American spy plane.
0:37:50 > 0:37:52It is drawn from the SR-71 Blackbird,
0:37:52 > 0:37:55which had a corrugated titanium skin.
0:37:55 > 0:37:58And when we started to look into the Skylon structure,
0:37:58 > 0:38:03we decided that the solution that other companies had intended to advocate
0:38:03 > 0:38:08which is using honeycomb panels of heat-resisting ceramic material,
0:38:08 > 0:38:10was actually not the right way to do it.
0:38:16 > 0:38:19And we could find a lighter solution
0:38:19 > 0:38:23by adopting the solution that the Blackbird had used,
0:38:23 > 0:38:27whereby we just take a single skin of material,
0:38:27 > 0:38:29and corrugate it for stiffness,
0:38:29 > 0:38:31but also for thermal compliance
0:38:31 > 0:38:33from the substructure from which it's mounted.
0:38:37 > 0:38:41During re-entry, the aeroshell is about 800 degrees hotter
0:38:41 > 0:38:43than the internal structure of the vehicle,
0:38:43 > 0:38:47so you've got a major thermal expansion mismatch there to solve.
0:38:49 > 0:38:51If you imagine this is part of the aircraft's skin,
0:38:51 > 0:38:53it could be part of the fuselage or the wing,
0:38:53 > 0:38:54because of the corrugations,
0:38:54 > 0:38:57it has a certain amount of stiffness in this direction.
0:38:57 > 0:39:01However, it has relatively little stiffness in this direction,
0:39:01 > 0:39:04so this panel, during re-entry, could be perhaps 800 degrees hotter
0:39:04 > 0:39:07than the substructure from which it's mounted.
0:39:07 > 0:39:11It's silicon carbide fibres within a glass matrix.
0:39:11 > 0:39:15And this material is good to around 1000 degrees C, we think.
0:39:15 > 0:39:17May I have your attention, please?
0:39:17 > 0:39:20A temperature run is about to commence.
0:39:20 > 0:39:25While Alan's team was drawing on American technology for heat shields,
0:39:25 > 0:39:29the United States Air Force had continued to develop the scramjet.
0:39:29 > 0:39:32What we are going to do is we are going to take the X-51 Waverider.
0:39:32 > 0:39:36We're going to launch that from a B52 at 50,000 feet
0:39:36 > 0:39:38over the Pacific Ocean.
0:39:38 > 0:39:41And then the vehicle is going to drop away,
0:39:41 > 0:39:45it's going to be accelerated by a solid rocket booster up to about Mach 4.5.
0:39:47 > 0:39:50The solid rocket booster will drop away and the vehicle,
0:39:50 > 0:39:52and the engine, that's just being tested,
0:39:52 > 0:39:56is going to ignite and then further accelerate that vehicle up to Mach 6.
0:39:56 > 0:40:02The Waverider is the successor to NASA's X-43 scramjet.
0:40:02 > 0:40:07But it is designed for conducting warfare, not space travel.
0:40:07 > 0:40:10Everything we do at Edwards is flight test
0:40:10 > 0:40:12and a lot of what we do is weapon systems -
0:40:12 > 0:40:14in the short to middle term -
0:40:14 > 0:40:17helping the war fighter more directly.
0:40:17 > 0:40:18This is more of a long-term thing.
0:40:18 > 0:40:21Things that we're working on in the scramjet engine
0:40:21 > 0:40:25are going to benefit the war fighter 15, 20 years from now
0:40:25 > 0:40:30when we're will be able to utilise this technology to bring new capabilities to the fight.
0:40:30 > 0:40:32It's exciting, though.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38NASA had hoped that scramjets would deliver cheap access to space.
0:40:38 > 0:40:45But the US Air Force sees scramjets as forming spearhead of prompt global strike -
0:40:45 > 0:40:51a military doctrine adopted by the US as part of the war on terror.
0:40:51 > 0:40:53Space travel is no longer a goal.
0:41:00 > 0:41:05As a means of getting a warhead to any target on the face of the planet in under 15 minutes,
0:41:05 > 0:41:09scramjets' disadvantages are of little relevance to the US Air Force.
0:41:15 > 0:41:19With scramjet technology firmly focused on military use,
0:41:19 > 0:41:22the Skylon team are confident that their own engine design
0:41:22 > 0:41:26will now emerge as the sole contender in the race
0:41:26 > 0:41:29to produce a single-stage-to-orbit spacecraft.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32Our other main competitor in propulsion terms is
0:41:32 > 0:41:35the so-called scramjet, supersonic combustion ramjet.
0:41:37 > 0:41:42On paper, the scramjet has a sort of siren-like attraction about it,
0:41:42 > 0:41:46because it's capable, in theory, of producing useful thrust,
0:41:46 > 0:41:48up to some very high Mach numbers.
0:41:48 > 0:41:52Perhaps Mach 10 or even 15, on paper.
0:41:52 > 0:41:56However, unfortunately, scramjets are completely unsuitable
0:41:56 > 0:41:58for propelling an aeroplane into space.
0:42:00 > 0:42:03A scramjet, like a ramjet, has no compressor.
0:42:03 > 0:42:05So it's not capable of operating from rest.
0:42:05 > 0:42:09It has to be accelerated up to some suitable Mach number
0:42:09 > 0:42:12before the engine can even generate any thrust whatsoever.
0:42:21 > 0:42:27With all the enabling technologies that would turn Skylon into a viable spacecraft now established,
0:42:27 > 0:42:33the three rocketeers' lonely years in the wilderness are at last coming to an end.
0:42:35 > 0:42:38The journey has been long and arduous.
0:42:39 > 0:42:43My overriding feeling is just a sheer waste of time and effort
0:42:43 > 0:42:45that's gone into this.
0:42:45 > 0:42:47I'm now in my mid-60s.
0:42:47 > 0:42:51I really wish I was in my mid-40s, trying to do the same things.
0:42:52 > 0:42:56My colleagues have spent a large part of their career
0:42:56 > 0:42:57in the wilderness.
0:42:57 > 0:42:59We could have done so much more.
0:42:59 > 0:43:02You have to remember that originally
0:43:02 > 0:43:06HOTOL would have been going to orbit in the mid-1990s
0:43:06 > 0:43:09and here we are at least 10 years on from that.
0:43:09 > 0:43:13So sad that it's taken us so long and there's been so much wasted time,
0:43:13 > 0:43:17especially so much wasted British industry in the process.
0:43:19 > 0:43:22From his early work on HOTOL to the present day,
0:43:22 > 0:43:28it has taken Bond and his team over 30 years to turn his vision of cheap access to space
0:43:28 > 0:43:31into something a lot closer to reality.
0:43:32 > 0:43:35There have been many dark days and the real dark days
0:43:35 > 0:43:40is when you carry a vision into sort of various government departments
0:43:40 > 0:43:43and you feel that people can't see past the first paragraph
0:43:43 > 0:43:45of that vision.
0:43:45 > 0:43:50But today, vision seems to focus on bank accounts and material wealth
0:43:50 > 0:43:55and various celebrity programmes and so on.
0:43:55 > 0:43:58The actual vision of doing something bigger
0:43:58 > 0:44:02on the basis that the future depends on it seems to have been generally lost.
0:44:03 > 0:44:07At an age when many people would be looking forward to retirement,
0:44:07 > 0:44:12Alan continues to pursue his dream with passion and determination.
0:44:12 > 0:44:15A lot of people have regarded me as having the vision.
0:44:17 > 0:44:20I've been fortunate that I've had a large number of colleagues around me
0:44:20 > 0:44:24who've also been able to share that vision.
0:44:24 > 0:44:28The potential that this technology can add to the science of propulsion
0:44:28 > 0:44:30is phenomenal.
0:44:48 > 0:44:51Inspired from his boyhood days by the Dan Dare stories,
0:44:51 > 0:44:56Alan Bond has devoted his entire life to the dream
0:44:56 > 0:44:58of getting mankind into space.
0:45:06 > 0:45:09Shrugging off government obduracy,
0:45:09 > 0:45:12lack of funding and international scepticism,
0:45:12 > 0:45:15he and his colleagues have struggled on against all odds.
0:45:18 > 0:45:23Now, more than two decades after the HOTOL Project was shut down,
0:45:23 > 0:45:27today's test will decide whether the pre-cooler actually works.
0:45:28 > 0:45:32And, with it, the possibility of building an engine
0:45:32 > 0:45:34that would allow Skylon to fly.
0:45:34 > 0:45:36ENGINE PICKS UP SPEED AND ROARS
0:45:42 > 0:45:45The very future of reaction engines itself
0:45:45 > 0:45:48depends on the outcome of this test.
0:45:54 > 0:45:58The years of hard work pay off.
0:45:58 > 0:46:00The pre-cooler works flawlessly.
0:46:04 > 0:46:07Alan's vision is finally taking shape.
0:46:35 > 0:46:39As of now, Skylon itself remains just a vision.
0:46:39 > 0:46:44So far, no-one has come forward to actually build the first prototype.
0:46:45 > 0:46:48But such details are of little concern to Alan Bond.
0:46:48 > 0:46:52We have absolute confidence in the technology.
0:46:52 > 0:46:55I've devoted well over 20 years now into developing this
0:46:55 > 0:47:00for the sole reason I'm absolutely sure that it's all going to work.
0:47:00 > 0:47:04After a lifetime's devotion to this single dream,
0:47:04 > 0:47:09Alan can at last look forward to that dream becoming a reality.
0:47:09 > 0:47:13Ten years from now, the first Skylon light vehicles
0:47:13 > 0:47:17will be flying into orbit and someone will be looking at the Mark 2.
0:47:17 > 0:47:21I like to think of Skylon as the DC3 of the space business.
0:47:21 > 0:47:26And somewhere downstream there are the 747s and the 777s.
0:47:27 > 0:47:31For the three rocketeers, it has been a lonely journey.
0:47:31 > 0:47:35But as Alan approaches his eighth decade stuck on this planet,
0:47:35 > 0:47:39at last other people can now see his vision.
0:47:39 > 0:47:42There is a new generation of people that do feel
0:47:42 > 0:47:45that there's some merit in what we're talking about.
0:47:45 > 0:47:50There's a generation of people within government departments in the UK
0:47:50 > 0:47:52that feel that there's some merit,
0:47:52 > 0:47:57and they have conveyed their views on that to the European Space Agency.
0:47:57 > 0:48:02And I do feel that we now are experiencing a seachange
0:48:02 > 0:48:04in terms of getting the project moving.
0:48:08 > 0:48:11We're standing today, I think, on the verge
0:48:11 > 0:48:16of a new era of transportation which will be brought about by these engines,
0:48:16 > 0:48:20and I think the possibilities are probably endless.
0:48:20 > 0:48:22In a few decades from now,
0:48:22 > 0:48:25we'll be able to put anything that we want in space as easily as
0:48:25 > 0:48:29we could get on an aeroplane to go anywhere else in the world.
0:48:29 > 0:48:31Although I'm slightly visionary,
0:48:31 > 0:48:34even I cannot see what the ultimate consequences of all of that are.
0:48:53 > 0:48:57Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd