Quote:
Originally posted by MaggieL
The aircraft looks a bit like the very early concept drawings for the XB-70 and space shuttle. It's what's called a "boost glider"; and it's not a jet at all. The rocket booster gets it up high and fast, and then the glider detaches.
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It seems to me this would be a very expensive way to fly, unless they have come up with a very cheap to run, easily reusable, easily retrievable booster system, then surely you are looking at a cost nearly on par with sending a person into orbit on a space shuttle ?
Current passenger jets get turned around from arrival to departure in a matter of minutes, seems like this thing could take weeks unless they have a large quantity of boosters always in rotation.