§ Mr. Ashdownasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether he has received any request from British Aerospace or Rolls Royce for funding of development work on the HOTOL project; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. PattieThe support I recently announced for this project is for proof of concept studies, to see if there would be any insuperable difficulties with the technology and to provide credible design, performance and cost data with which we can explore the concept with our partners in the European Space Agency. Only then and on a thorough technical, financial and market analysis could there be any commitment to developing HOTOL. I am glad that we have been able to accelerate this revolutionary British idea for a spaceplane. The concept and the credit lie with British Aerospace and Rolls-Royce who have themselves funded the work up to now. The British National Space Centre's support will enable us to see what the possibilities are.