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by Dan Sharp.
Hardback (8.5×12.0 inches). 424 pages. 2024.
First off, HOTOL stands for Horizontal Takeoff and Landing and was the UK version of the US Space Shuttle except it was supposed to take off like an ordinary jet (the horizontal part) instead of the Space Shuttle’s vertical takeoff. As you may not have heard of it, understand it never quite made a flight.
At first, I thought this would be a system-by-system technical briefing about design and development — it certainly contains enough of that type of information. Yet, it also contains a quite readable account of the engineering idea (heat exchangers with air-breathing engines) that started the political process to fund its design and development. British government policies and procedures plus commercial interests in an era of tight budgets receive ample coverage on what backed initial interest and ultimately cancelled it.
The book contains “over 400” period engineering and marketing diagrams, illustrations, and photos. I didn’t count ’em, but that number seems right. Kudos for using a large page format so the imagery can also be large.
Lots of technical details, often taken from period reports and memos, populate this tour-de-force of project history. While all these engineering challenges, political squabbles, and economic pressures do little to enhance tabletop gaming, the story is an interesting one.
I would hope that a future book about SpaceX rockets would be as balanced and well-written as this one about HOTOL. What say you, Tempest Books?
Enjoyed it.
— Reviewed by Russ Lockwood
