I’m confused… why would you try to do mach 24 in the stratosphere?
My idea was to start direct alpha augmentation along with the MHDs in the stratosphere in order to accelerate as much as feasible and throw the craft into an arc that would carry it into the thermosphere. By the time the MHDs quit and the FFs ran out of air to augment their thrust… well, by then drag wouldn’t be a problem (until the arc ended in reentry, that is.) I wasn’t figuring on the FF units fighting atmospheric drag by themselves.
