As a (very!) few people have mentioned over the years,
sucessful aircraft design is all about fullfilling the
stated mission objectives.

I think Ron W's post gave clear indication that SS1
WON'T scale up for an orbital ship.

That is a completely different and much more demanding
mission objective, requiring a completely different design.

But I have purest faith that if Burt bites into that one
it WILL be a success, and it will likely be completely different
from anything we've see so far.

Unless? The lightest simplest cheapest solution to reentry is
soemthing we did before and moved away from. Like a blunt body
heat shield, maybe?

Man, what I'd give to be on THAT team...

Richard