From HOTOL to SKYLON - The history of Britain's spaceplane project.
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- čas přidán 19. 06. 2024
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Skylon is a spaceplane like no other - it's a SSTO, or Single Stage to orbit vehicle, and one of my favorite spacecraft concepts.
Its history dates back to the 1980s with the HOTOL Project, with the goal of reducing the cost of putting things into orbit to 1/5th that of the American space shuttle. Much work has been done on the idea, and includes some truly brilliant technologies. But the British government was wary of the huge development costs and time required.
Work on SABRE and Skylon continues privately under Reaction Engines Limited, and while Skylon might not be in the air today, its engine technology continues to be developed...
I hope you enjoy my attempt at recreating these vehicles in KSP RSS/RO.
Sources:
Concept art on the secretprojects forum
www.secretprojects.co.uk/thre...
The latest Skylon manual, and the one mine is based off of.
web.archive.org/web/201511290...
A great BBC documentary on HOTOL and Skylon, with Alan Bond and more speaking.
• The Three Rocketeers-2...
Additional sources:
web.archive.org/web/200812301...
reactionengines.co.uk/
web.archive.org/web/201106151...
web.archive.org/web/201306231...
web.archive.org/web/201509240...
www.researchgate.net/profile/...
Music:
Nightlife by Frank Schröter
Link: filmmusic.io/song/8700-nightlife
License: filmmusic.io/standard-license
Bap Bap Bap by Sascha Ende®
Link: filmmusic.io/song/2977-bap-ba...
License: filmmusic.io/standard-license
Smooth and Cool by Nico Staf
CZcams audio library
Stairway by Patrick Patrikios
CZcams audio library
Tribute by Frank Schröter
Link: filmmusic.io/song/8740-tribute
License: filmmusic.io/standard-license
Rich in the 80s by DivKid
CZcams audio library
Space Trooper by Divkid
CZcams audio library
Beautiful Sound by Frank Schröter
Link: filmmusic.io/song/9004-beauti...
License: filmmusic.io/standard-license
Looping Ascent by Joel Cummins
CZcams audio library
Drive by Ross Bugden
• ♩♫ Epic Chase Music ♪♬...
Content:
0:00 Intro
0:33 The concept of SSTOs
1:22 Why do rockets stage?
3:00 Introduction to HOTOL
5:25 HOTOL 2.0
7:11 The end of HOTOL
7:55 And the start of Skylon
8:25 Skylon Cinematic
14:33 The future of Skylon
16:24 But... - Hry
Brilliantly made video, nicely done!
Thank you! :)
Glad you enjoyed it. (I'm surprised you found it actually)
Matt lowne
Matt I love yo channel 💕
hi!
Ah yes, the king of SSTOs in ksp
I'm simply astonished by the quality of the visuals, the story, the render and you did good a job with the voice over!!!!
Excellent video. The visuals were really impressive, and your KSP demonstrations were, as always, on point. The voice over wasn't quite as polished as the rest, but public speaking is a skill like any other, and I'm excited for you to keep developing your oration; you're clearly passionate about the material, and have a lot of cool concepts to share. Keep up the good work, man.
Brilliant! Fantastic execution through and through. Every minute enjoyable!
This is so incredibly professionally made!
Some constructive criticism: The voice over is a bit too slow. Sounds normal at 1.5x speed. Either way, amazing work as always.
I think he is trying to mimick the voiceovers of old future tech presentation videos
@@jesusramirezromo2037 Script is perfect, but speech is, as I said is slow.
@@fork9001i support the slow voice 100% because it’s easy to hear and it sounds good
He also slurs his speech.
This was very educational and very well put together and I like how you're trying something new with this video with the voice over. Your channel has gone so far in such little time, keep it up the awesome work! -Kermit
Wow! Great video, especially that trailer in the end!
Very well made video! The quality of this video can combat with those that have over a million subs.
Thank you! That means a lot to me :)
The video isn't gaining much traction (darn algorithm), but maybe in time when I make more of these it'll pick up...
Spectacular video, great work.
Its good to finally put a voice to the name TD, although i always imagined it to be deep, 180dB and coming from everywhere 😄
Man this videos awesome, well done! i hope to see more videos like this in the future, i love the style
I'll still keep doing my usual format, but I'll definitely do some more of these in the future!
absolutely superb, man
Amazing video, it's amazing!
Ahh Skylon, forever waiting for those magic engines to some day be possible, not to mention the basiclly magic alloys
They're being tested
true but we get more teck every day so maybe ?
@@stanleydavidson6543 tech.
its not magic... just no one wants to push the money into it that it needs... everything works on paper. It doesnt need magical engines... this isnt a warp ship... it would have worked in the 80s... only you have to cool all that air down for combustion to occur... otherwise o2 in air is unavailable for combustion... and recently that tech breakthrough happened...
As far as alloy on the plane... of course, they are fine... they've had the materials for that for half a century plus. X-plane had them... this craft doesnt have to do anything x-plane (x15) didn't... except its bigger.
@@joecater894 This thing will acellerate inside the atmosphere
The alloys for that don't exist, the blackbird leaked fuel
Thanks for the entertaining video :)
Great video! I found the history of Skylon interesting.
Minor error at 3:08, 'efficeint' instead of 'efficient'. Regardless, I enjoyed watching the video.
this amazing
great video
you should start doing a series ngl though
it would be cool and awesome
Peace out-Reyz
Thinking about it. Depending on how well this video does, I just might.
I recommend the airplane plus and TURD mods if you want to make not only a more accurate skylon, but better planes in general.
I did use TURD for this. I'm not sure if airplane+ has RO configs though.
A+ is dedicated to normal planes though, not sure how it would help with a skylon-like aircraft?
@@TDChannelKSP airplane+ has a size 2 round cargo bay that you could use, in combination with tweakscale to make a better cargo bay. I’m not sure if you need RO configs or not for cargo bays. Also, the mod airplane plus things or alltweak might work for the scaling. Another mod, simple repaint allows you to recolor parts that don’t have TURD. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if those tweak scaling mods or simple repaint work with RO. Great video BTW.
@@elijahrhyne8961 Ahh, that's true. I've had issues with tweascale sometimes breaking FAR so I didn't want to risk it. Skylon is actually area ruled at the cargo bay - it gets narrower, so the mk3 bay is somewhat accurate (couldn't use the transition pieces, too heavy - unless I edited those)
Glad you enjoyed it though.
What did you use to create the colorable payload door section?
Textures Unlimited Recolour Depot (TURD)
forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/174188-112x-textures-unlimited-recolour-depot/
This was very Mustard! I love it. Subbed.
That's one of my main inspirations! Glad you liked it.
@@TDChannelKSPI love the name of the payload stage
Really great vid, i really like the HOTOL and the Skylon and i want to know : how did you make this workable HOTOL ? because i can't manage to make one fly without seeing it's wing being ripped at the first turn.
AND finally , if you have mod to make them do you remember what are they called ?
Looks like I forgot to reply to this one, sorry!
The HOTOL is semi-workable - it flies for the most part, it's just procedural parts and B9 procedural wings. Atmospheric autopilot mod helps keep it stable in flight.
However, it's not a fully functional craft - it can't go to orbit or return from orbit, it pretty much just served as a prop for the video. Since IRL one of the challenges with it was aerodynamic instability, it's no wonder it's a tricky craft to make fly.
"Bueller ? . . . Bueller ? . . . Bueller ? . . . Bueller ?" - Ben Stein 🤣
The narration itself is great, but it feels like somewhere between recording and uploading the voiceover got a bit distorted. Do you have a good mic?
I run a Fifine K669 - not the most expensive mic but it seems decent. It's possible I overtuned it in some way from the audio filters and later tweaking in Davinci Resolve, though.
The opportunity to bring back old satellites for updates or recycling is game changing. Hope it sees none military use now DARPA and skunk works have it.
Didn't you use endless fuel? My best achievement with the similar concept is a suborbital flight.
I did not. However, I had to create custom configs for the tankage (as the kind of lightweight tanks did not exist in RO yet - they do now, though!) based on the data from the study.
Otherwise, everything else was using existing configs/parts
You made a few mistakes but this is the ksp video that stands out
Were there any factual errors I made, or is it just the roughness of first voiceover? (just checking)
@@TDChannelKSP voiceover
@@TDChannelKSP One factual error I noticed was about the helium coolant: it uses gaseous helium, not liquid helium (still insanely cold of course).
Plz do fully reusable mars mission next.
Like the Troy concept? Might be interesting to tackle that one.
Thought it would be a worthy challenge
Hi guys nice 👍 video Britain 🇬🇧 does have some great 👍 inventions but it always seems to come down to money 💰 or the government is not willing or interested we could have done this a long time ago o well on words and upwards david 🚀❤️🇬🇧👍
👍👍
Your telling me this could transport the skylon upper stage to space? Sounds kinda sus to me.
Skylon Upper Stage, idk man seems suspicious
One word. Mustard.
One word. Yes.
@@TDChannelKSPOne Acronym: S.U.S.
Plleaaseeee ksp md list?
TD, are you ok at home? You sound fully dead inside.
Yes - I just sound like that :D
Plus, first time doing a voice-over so it's a little rough.
@@TDChannelKSP ok you sound like an 11th grader who is fully done with life in a public speaking class
He could get a job at scscience chchannel dlong their voiceovers
@@TDChannelKSP it sounds fine, glad you are doing okay
Was the SUS a real consept :D
In fact, yes it was! Just has some funny implications by now ;)
@@TDChannelKSP :D
dont call the Skylon Upper Stage by its initials worst mistake of my life
Yes, but where is the nose mounted rudder, a HOTOL derived design should've kept the nose rudder...
HOTOL (1986) is so pretty
It really is! A shame it doesn't fly too well...
@@TDChannelKSP In that case I'm happy I wasn't the one flying it!
The skylon upper stage is looking kind of sus
Skylon Upper stage is SUS?
was the name if SUS intentional?
Nope, that's just the real name of the stage, documented years before Among Us existed! It's still funny though.
@@TDChannelKSP Indeed
10:47 "sus"
Engines are tested in 2018
And succesfully tested
Europe agreed to invest in this engines
The first flight is scheduled 2025 for test
But with covid will take maybe 2027
Aircraft will be all titanium in the fuselage and wings
No windows
It will have 3d windows like in new 777 er airplanes they start using 3d windows
So people will be able to see outside in real time
Pulse detonation engine might be better
Project Andoria
Are you a rocket engineer ?
Nope, just someone very interested in spaceflight and old concepts :)
skyln
modlist?
You can find most of the mods here
github.com/KSP-RO/RP-0/wiki/RO-&-RP-1-Installation-for-1.10.1
Skylon and HOTOL were built out of proc parts.
@@TDChannelKSP thx
Is the narrator ok?
Yes I am. Just inexperienced at doing voiceovers :)
The Skylons were created by man. (lol!)
sup bruh, why do u speak like that? Good job tho its an azing video!!
It's just my voice, plus the inexperience of doing something for the first time - hopefully I'll get better at in time :)
Thanks though.
Great video (Visually). What genius chose this guy as the narrator with a nasal , monotone & sluggish voice? This is painful to listen to over an extended period of time.
The narrator is me :P it's the first voice-overed video I've ever done, so I do apologize for that. I'll try to do much better on that end if I try it again.
Geez Mantikal, that’s a rough way to give some (non) constructive criticism.
I have some experience in broadcasting professionally and freelance voiceover, I’d be down to critique your voice if you’d like
1st
Sus
It's like a drunken stephen hawkin voice...
LMFAO. This is actually his real voice by the way.
What's with the voice?
First time I attempted doing a scripted VO for my videos. It's a tad rough :P
2nd
skylon upper stage = SUS
HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
can you please stop talking like the nerd emoji
Hate HATE HATE robot voices. STOP
IT or lose viewers.
Heyo, fair point - it's my first attempt at doing a voice-over, so it's a little rough. While I'll continue to do my usual content, it might take some time for me to get better at script reading.
Sir, I know it is hard to believe, but this is his actual voice.
Sorry but I can't deal with the robo voice in this video.👎
Fair enough. That was my first attempt at doing a voiceover recording for a video, and it didn't go nearly as well as I thought it did, haha.