For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
User avatar
By tomshep
#1656212
Much of the hardware seems to have been on loan, so £25 million seems to be an awful lot of money to have spent in order to produce nothing of any value. Another £25M seems like throwing good money after bad. Clearly potential investors thought the same.
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1656286
The British disease in a nutshell, amateurs producing something amazing and challenging, but largely useless and certainly without any commercial value. :roll:
Taff pilot liked this
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1656308
tomshep wrote:Yeah. Hovercraft, gas turbines, antibiotics, telephones, pneumatic tyres, radar, generators, electric motors lasers and vertical take off fighter jets.



I didn't say everyone suffered from it, we even managed to make a few quid out of some of that but generally we let the Americans do that :-)
Nick liked this
User avatar
By Dave W
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1656312
Must be some other Nation that is the fifth largest economy in the World, then.

Probably one whose citizens don't continually do it down.
Straight Level, NickC, Maxthelion and 2 others liked this
User avatar
By Waveflyer
#1656315
I’ve been on a tour of the facility at Avonmouth and you have to admire the skill to produce such a quality project together with the dedication and enthusiasm but needing £50m is a tad ambitious :shock:
Flyin'Dutch' liked this
User avatar
By Sooty25
#1656335
gfry wrote:Why on earth would any investor invest such large sums in to something so utterly useless?


Maybe because to some people £25M isn't a lot of money.
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1656337
There is some tremendous innovation in this country and some completely bonkers stuff too, both have their place. We never seem to be able to capitalise on our skills and ingenuity these days though. I guess it's the politics and the management that don't work well.
Nick liked this
User avatar
By matthew_w100
#1656340
Is this thing actually innovative in any useful way? It seemed to me that it was just bolting standard bits together - the bulk of the effort was in organising things rather than engineering advancement.
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1656355
matthew_w100 wrote:Is this thing actually innovative in any useful way? It seemed to me that it was just bolting standard bits together - the bulk of the effort was in organising things rather than engineering advancement.



No this one was in the bonkers category :D , but has the side effect it is hoped of inspiring youngsters to have a go at engineering and invention, that's worth a try.....I'm not feeling quite so jaundiced this morning BTW :D
By masterofnone
#1656368
johnm wrote:We never seem to be able to capitalise on our skills and ingenuity these days though. I guess it's the politics and the management that don't work well.

With regards to bloodhound having no commercial value, I'll stand corrected, but this venture wasn't about commercial exploration - any more than Hillary climbing Everest or Robin Knox Johnston single handedly circumnavigating the globe. It was about human spirit, pushing boundaries and inspiring the next generation by showing them what's possible when you put a dollop of innovation with bucket of
hard work and determination. People on this forum bang on about lack of STEM.... This was arguably the greatest platform created for STEM education in recent memory.

In terms of why we don't capitalise on our skills, I think it's a cultural thing. There is a large proportion of the British public that like to self flagellate just a little bit less than demeaning the efforts of others, especially if those efforts are extraordinary in any way. Failure isn't embraced for what it is.... The principle method of learning. Whilst we are busy hollowing out all perception of value in a project, people with a more optimistic disposition (historically Americans) see the value in the project and pick it up for a song (largely as a consequence of the value erosion exercise, and the demoralised state of people running the project)

matthew_w100 wrote:Is this thing actually innovative in any useful way?

Define "useful". Is attempting to inspire a generation "useful"? Innovation in this context is doing something no one has ever achieved before - the aim was "to break the 1000mph barrier", not "to create new engineering that is innovative in a useful way". :wink:

Arguably, the 25-50m required for the project is utter peanuts, especially in consideration of the potential benefits. Barely a rounding error when one considers the sums wasted on corporate inefficiency and hare brained education policies
kanga, johnm, RisePilot and 1 others liked this