U.K. SPACE PLANS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28975, 17 August 1959, Page 11

U.K. SPACE PLANS

New Engine Developed

(Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON, Aug. 16. A British space scientist, Dr. William Hilton, last night claimed he had invented a new space engine far in advance of anything the Americans were now working on, the “Sunday Dispatch” reported. Dr. Hilton is to head a space travel research team set up by the Hawker-Siddeley group. According to the newspaper, he said: “My engine is better than the heavy rocket motors being used by the Americans because it breathes air and does not have to carry its own oxygen.”

He added: “The result is a tremendous saving in fuel and weight, which means a greater payload—men or instruments. “The engine might be used to put a man into orbit and bring him down again or, later on, for space travel.” According to the newspaper, the engine would be used on the first stage of a flight through the earth’s atmosphere and then rockets would take over. The “Evening Standard” reported earlier that British scientists were ready to start building a two-man space ship after successful tests with models.

The paper said Dr. Hilton believed that Britain had solved the problem of getting a man back from space. The space vehicle would throw heat generated by friction as-it re-entered the earth’s atmosphere from its side by shock waves. The space ship would follow more the design of a conventional aircraft than the bubble idea. “Our craft will fly itself back into the atmosphere rather than drop as the American and Russian capsules are planned to do,” Dr. Hilton said.