space shuttle as a suborbtial plane

Can the space shuttle be converted to a comercial suborbital plane?
It would be carried aloft by a 747 and released high up like the white
knight and the spaceshipone. The shuttle would use fuel stored in the
cargo bay and carry passengers. London to Tokyo in 1 hour!

Louis

In article ,
louis wrote:
Can the space shuttle be converted to a comercial suborbital plane?
It would be carried aloft by a 747 and released high up like the white
knight and the spaceshipone. The shuttle would use fuel stored in the
cargo bay and carry passengers. London to Tokyo in 1 hour!

The idea is not ridiculous... provided you don't start with the shuttle.
It's totally unsuited to doing this, in any number of ways. (Starting
with the fact that no commercial operator could possibly afford the army
of people who maintain it.)
--
"Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend." | Henry Spencer
-- George Herbert |

The MAKS spaceplane idea from the Russians could be made to work like this, but
not in a commercially viable sense.