dre wrote:

and how much fuel is needed for a usable payload?
nasa is breaking their heads over this,and now you are claiming to be a
better rocket engineer?
don't make me laugh!
4 min of thrust.....want to use a sam to carry 5tons of payload into space?
the delta clipper was an effort to have only 1 stage,failed because the tank
ruptured.
and was to heavy anyway

oh yes!!
you are much brighter than nasa and the russians !

A winged SSTO horizontal takeoff and land (HTOL) stuffed to the gills
with hypergolic fuel, lightened with current materials technology,
could do LEO in a heartbeat.  Figure about 2 minutes to orbit, with a
minute of fuel to spare.

Remember that:  Wings add a great deal of lift, halfing the dry weight
of the SSTO is about the same as doubling the wet weight, and that 2:1
thrust to weight will get you to near orbital speed prior to leaving
the atmosphere.

A jet fighter will go supersonic shortly after leaving the runway --
with 1:1 thrust to weight.  With rockets thrust time is greatly
reduced, but 2:1+ is easily possible.

A waverider spaceplane is clearly indicated for the Space Shuttle
follow-on.  Waveriders greatly reduce drag, thus increasing
acceleration.


tomcat