In article ,
Pat Flannery wrote:
I'm really surprised that the small air-launched orbiter with giant drop
tank concept didn't get anywhere- both we and the Russians thought the
idea had enough merit to do designs of the concept...

Or without drop tank. Grumman's proposal to the SDIO SSTO competition
(won by McDD with DC-X) was a no-drop-tank orbiter, air launched from a
747, that used existing engines and quite ordinary structures.
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