back to article Southampton Uni climbs aboard LOHAN spaceplane project

The Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) team is delighted to announce today that a heavyweight team of postgraduate students from the University of Southampton will be tackling the design of our Vulture 2 spaceplane. Click here for a bigger version of the LOHAN graphic Regular readers will recall that we recently …

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  1. Braveheart24
    Thumb Up

    South Uni climbs on board

    Payload to ISS next step?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I get a warm fuzzy feeling...

    ... when I see such a breadth of engineering talent coming out of the UK universities.

    What a shame the twats in governments are forcing each student to pay £27k for the privilege, which is going to result in fewer rocket scientists which will stifle UK innovation.

    1. Chris Miller
      Unhappy

      Never mind

      they'll be able to get highly paid City jobs predicting whether the next coin toss will be heads or tails.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    We have our own version of Big Bang Theory...

    I just wish David Cooper had a doctorate to complete this.......

  4. Chazmon
    Boffin

    @AC The funny thing about fees is that they are actually pushing more students towards the 'hard' subjects such as engineering and chemistry as they see the value in these courses.

    I have a BSc in chemistry and still think at £9000 a year it would have been a bargain given the contact hours and expertese I could draw upon. For a philosophy degree with 3 hours of lectures a week im less convinced as are prospective students up and down the country.

  5. JonRussell

    That's cheating ...

    ... Everyone knows university boffins can build space planes.... It's much more fun watching journalist's try to do it ... ? :-)

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Any truth in the rumour?

    Any truth in the rumour that Portsmouth University is developing an anti-aircraft gun? :-)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Any truth in the rumour?

      Can we rename Lohan "The Scummer" ?

    2. Sir Sham Cad

      Portsmouth already have...

      Fort Nelson on standby and the type 45 destroyer (shush, Lewis) simulator at Qinetiq for target acquisition.

      With luck a few stray shells will "redevelop" the ward of Shirley, too.

  7. Bassey

    Mixed feelings

    Whilst I join the others in positively glowing with pride that the UK is producing such engineering talent and am pleased to see such people anthusiastically jumping on LOHAN - I do wonder if the project is perhaps veering too far from its "Men in Sheds" ethos?

    1. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge

      Re: Mixed feelings

      Don't you worry - there's still plenty of hot LOHAN garden shed action to come...

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You should relocate to the birth place of the harrier

    You need a suitable development site that looks like a bond laire and was the birthplace of the harrier so im told...

    http://www.google.co.uk/maps?q=51.283635,-0.809126&t=h&z=16&vpsrc=0

  9. Victor Ludorum
    Pint

    Excellent news...

    As an alumnus of Soton, I for one welcome our PhD wielding rocket scientist overlords.

    Beer, well, I was a student once...

  10. Dick

    I have to say

    Professor Jim looks REALLY happy to see you.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "an experimental analysis of the flapping dynamics of a flag"

    Get that guy on the design team for the Vulture 11 lunar mission!

  12. Frostbite
    Thumb Up

    It's good to see Paul Heckles doing the flying, wish it was me :-)

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yay, a real flying plane this time!

    Nice to see that this time round the 'plane' will be something other than a plane-shaped sycamore leaf...

    Thumbs down is over there --------->

  14. Dave Bell

    What this project needs

    You can't be a proper aeronautical engineer from Southampton unless you've served an apprenticeship at a steam engine factory.

    And a piece of advice: "If anybody ever tells you anything about an aeroplane which is so bloody complicated you can't understand it, take it from me: it's all balls."

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      The first of the few

      From Wikipedia : "R.J. Mitchell ... gained an apprenticeship at Kerr Stuart & Co. of Fenton, a locomotive engineering works."

  15. Stoneshop
    Pint

    I spot

    A geodetical design stiffening the hull of the plane in one of the photos on the second page.

    <-- one for Barnes Wallis

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