Spaceplanes
Over the years, the number of aero engineers within Aspire has reached better than evens, so we felt it was time that we embarked on studies of winged launch vehicles.
Actually, the better reason is that we discovered that the only British launchsite large enough to handle our Aspire 2 space-shot vehicle was a sea-range, with the attendant problems of vehicle recovery. Also, it and the other large European ranges charge an absolute fortune for a day's hire; an order of magnitude more than the cost of the vehicle!
Dr David Ashford of Bristol Spaceplanes has come to the conclusion that Britain really isn't suitable for the launching of traditional vertical-takeoff boosters because of our small island's lack of large empty areas of land. But as we're surrounded by sea, Britain is an ideal candidate for launching winged spacecraft out over our empty seas, then gliding them back to coastal airstrips after re-entry.
We thoroughly agree, and so we're continuing the amateur
work on Waverider spaceplanes
in the UK.
Our most ambitious project is the Swift personal Spaceplane, a suborbital one-person craft.