Tom Roberts and I went along to Alan Bond's RAeS lecture in Bristol.

Alan started with a recap of the history of reusable launchers leading to HOTOL. After summarising the lessons learned from HOTOL he moved on to Skylon and its possible derivatives.

The focus of the main body of the talk was on engines, heat exchangers, materials science, structure, aerodynamics, and the practical issues of trading-off the various design issues to optimise the whole Skylon system. It was well pitched to the audience, which was predominantly technical, and had enough anecdote and colour for the less technical attendees.

The lecture covered some quite complex engineering issues in a very accessible manner. It was a well balanced lecture, and I left with a desire to go back and dig out my thermodynamics textbooks to revisit some long-forgotten material.

The questions afterwards seemed to come mainly from two directions: old and experienced aerosystems engineers who were asking practical questions about fabrication, quality and cost, and a group of younger engineers, possibly postgrad students, whose questions reflected their good grasp of the theory but general inexperience. Alan handled both types of questions with his usual light humour, even when one young man asked if he was recruiting!

It was a very enjoyable lecture from a man who is not only an inspiring engineer, but also a very skilled presenter.

Phil