1Even as America and Russia stepped up their efforts in the early 1960s to design ever faster bombers and put men and equipment into space, Britain quietly set to work devising its own hypersonic aircraft and manned space vehicles. British Secret Projects 5: Britain's Space Shuttle tells the story of how, from 1963 to 1966, English Electric/BAC's Preston works secretly led the world in re-useable spacecraft design.

A huge variety of designs formed the P.42 project with more than 100 proposals for hypersonic interceptors, bombers, reconnaissance aircraft, satellite launchers, spacecraft launchers, orbital spy planes and satellite killers. The end result was the 'Multi-Unit Space Transport And Recovery Device' (MUSTARD), which pre-dated the USA's Space Shuttle program by six years.

Based on unique access to the original project drawings, photographs, archives and interviews with surviving members of the design team, British Secret Projects 5: Britain's Space Shuttle offers a unique insight into this hitherto little-known chapter in the secret history of the UK manned space flight program.