On 3/7/2011 5:13 AM, David Spain wrote:
Pat Flannery wrote:
To go with their new and improved reissue of the Aurora 2001 Moon Bus
model, Moebius Models has now issued a new and improved 2001 Pan-Am
Space Clipper model: http://culttvman.com/main/?p=15924

And the reason we don't have a REAL one of these flying today, is, uh,
ummm, er, remind me?

Because we can't make a rocket engine that uses the small amount of fuel
that can be stored behind the passenger compartment and still put
something into orbit?
The engines themselves are odd; they look like some sort of aerospike
design using the airflow around the fuselage to make the outer wall of
the expansion nozzles but IIRC, the Orion was the upper component of a
reusable two stage system. So by the time it fired up its own engines it
would probably be clear of the majority of the atmosphere, so the engine
would be very inefficient, and tend to push the tail down while firing.
Maybe the spines on the tail are some sort of bootstrapped MHD system
and the ionized exhaust is constrained by some sort of electrical or
magnetic field?
Or maybe it was designed like that because it looked cool?

Pat