From: henry@spsystems.net   
      
   In article <20050119064908.16603.00000046@mb-m16.aol.com>,   
   John W. Landrum  wrote:   
   >[ramjets]  Before you can turn it on you must already be moving   
   >fast forward.  Unless you take off in a hurricane.   
      
   Even then.  Ramjets need *high* forward velocity; they work poorly or   
   not at all at subsonic speeds.   
      
   >...At takeoff the Venture Star is propelled with both fuel   
   >and oxidizer as the most inefficient rocket imaginable, until there is enough   
   >relative wind for the scramjet to begin using air as oxidizer.   
      
   Uh, the hypothetical VentureStar (and the stillborn X-33) were all-rocket.   
   No scramjets involved.   
   --   
   "Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend."    |   Henry Spencer   
                                   -- George Herbert       | henry@spsystems.net   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)