It’s a function of optimized design. It has exactly what it needs to go where it was designed to go and absolutely nothing more, which is why the fundamental design needs to be completely scrapped if they ever intend to take things further than that.

just keep going up until it escapes the Earth’s pull

Infinitely long helps with reduced drag, at least for subsonic flows. Things get weird when you go supersonic.

Even using Skylon as an SSTO is silly and should be abandoned. Make it a TSTO and it’s performance would probably be an order of magnitude better.

You cannot get anywhere close to space using a balloon. You can only get close to space in a plane if the plane is behaving as a ballistic rocket and not a plane.

Distance is irrelevant. Only orbital energy matters.

Technically, it is generally much more efficient to fly at lower speeds up through the lower atmosphere, then use the rocket.

No they aren’t. That vehicle isn’t going to come anywhere close to orbital velocity, much less escape velocity.

Necrobump! Check those dates when Kinja throws you stories you might also like.

I don’t think all gains will be city

The bomb in the film didn’t fizzle. The damage from the bomb in the book didn’t extend much past the stadium, but high radiation signatures and abnormally high thermal contrast due to ambient temperatures lead to it being initially suspected as much larger yield.

Does GM still offer the Bumblebee trim on the Camaro?

This is LAX we’re talking about. It takes that long just for your luggage to show up at the carousel, after they’ve redirected it twice.

Messerschmidt Tiger- Gilbert Gottfried

Silence and a copyright banner? I wish deth upon the UMG!

There are also a surprising number of people who simply trust a transaction with a human on the other end more than a machine, or who like to exchange pleasantries with at least the disembodied voice of the teller.

A couple of the guys in my office are in that situation, visas for assorted South American countries in their old passport that they have to carry around. Canada fortunately doesn’t need one, you just have to wait in line for several hours at immigration, and you better not tell them “I’m here to take yer jerbs, eh!”.

It’s a hose and some relief valves. If the tire can operate at that temperature, so can the hose, and we have relief valves for autoclaves that operate at much higher temperatures.

That’s exactly why I don’t use my horn unless I’m in a situation I can’t resolve by myself.

For a one off run you could develop a valve that would release air at high speeds to prevent tire failure from increased pressure. Unfortunately, you would need to add air to the tire after the run is over.