pacplyer wrote:

Whoops, I forgot the weight of the cable and winches! 100,000 lbs.
So figure t/o weight at ~750,000lbs (including glider/orbiter weight.)
No sweat for t/o but now getting to FL450 is going to be tough. We
may need some JATO bottles to get to FL450 with the -200 tow plane.
The gross on the -400 is 875,000lbs, may have to take that old KLM
bird sitting out in the desert instead.

Cheers,

pacplyer

I think somebody may have overlooked the effect of that 'snap the
whip' manouver on the tow plane too.

I'd almost expect the sudden increase in drag to stall the 747...

Richard