The Sanger Concept

1) the lower stage would never reach higher mach numbers. if its a
three stage plane, the first stage would never reach mach one.

2) a normal 747 can carry a fully loaded shuttle. if you make a
stripped down 'carrier' version it would be able to carry more. we
already have the designes for a scramjet, it just cant be turned on
without accelerating the air to mach 2 first. if the second stage
uses a ram jet (easily capable of reaching mach 2) it would allow the
third stage to start it engine with no problem.

3) since the first stage never reaches mach, and the second stage
would be released over water, there would be no problem with
launching from any runway a normal 747 can use.

4) we would not need new engine design if we used air started scram
jets and ram jet for getting that speed.

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "ANTIcarrot"
wrote:
>
> Because in most realistic engineering studies the lower stage:
> *Melts due to friction as it slowly accelerates through high mach
numbers
> *Is too heavy
> *Is so large it has an impractical development cost with respect to
designs
> which promise a similar price/payload to orbit
> *Usually need very long runways, which are more expensive and
harder to
> locate (because supersonic flight is illegial overland) than VTOL
towers.
> *Depends on engine technology that currently does not exist and
does seem