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"Satellite launchers"? Really? Is someone actually doing this,
or even working on it? Just curious because it seems to me that
piggy-back spacecraft on aircraft is an underexploited concept.

I believe the Blackjack-as-launch-vehicle proposal was stillborn. But the
concept is not unheard of; Orbital Science Corp had launched some 70
satellites using its Pegasus booster, first from the NASA B-52 and later
from its own converted L-1011 TriStar. See: www.orbital.com/LaunchVehicle/
SpaceLaunchVehicles/Pegasus/

Thanks for the pointer. Looks like Orbital does manage to launch
satellites on a pretty regular basis using this concept.

(Hey, how 'bout them Hokies? I see they are still able to snatch defeat from
the jaws of victory... g; just kidding--I spent about five years in
Blacksburg after leaving active duty back in the late eighties)

Fortunately for me I have almost zero interest in football,
or spectator sports in general, so they can win a championship
or crash and burn and it's all the same to me. Well, except that
the stadium is between my office and my house, so every time they
decide to expand it I have to dodge construction equipment
every day for months. They're adding to it again now. Sigh.

Bill Ranck
Blacksburg, Va.