Churchill Mk3 liquid rocket engine

[skwirlinator]

Anyone know about this? News broke on May 11th
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=6&id=509662005
With a design thrust of 147,000 Newtons (33,000lbs) it was being unveiled for the first time at the University of Salford, the home of Starchaser Industries.
Powerful enough to launch a double-decker bus into the sky at 3500mph, the Churchill Mk3 liquid rocket engine is the largest of its kind to have been built since the Government scrapped the national space programme more than 30 years ago.

How come the world doesn't pool their technology and combine forces?

[publiusr]

Good news after Skylark.

The world seems more focused on EELV class rocket gluts and launching Galileo/GPS clones.

Duplication of effort--and no really big steps forward.

[skwirlinator]

I just saw an article on skylark's last event

something about a 50 year lifespan program ending.

Seems it was planned to coincide with the Churchhill MK3 launch for continuity.

[publiusr]

One step forward and two steps back.

[Chief Engineer Scott]

I think the Churchill is part of the U.K's continued contribution to the European Space Agency (Arianne, etc.) rather than a completely independant project.
:o