From: henry@spsystems.net   
      
   In article ,   
   Earl Colby Pottinger   wrote:   
   >Has anyone considered making a working model of 'King David's Spaceship' ?   
      
   Unfortunately, conventional explosives are *not* good rocket propellants,   
   and an external-combustion design like that (essentially a non-nuclear   
   Orion) is not generally an efficient rocket engine.  Unless there is some   
   subtle design trick that greatly boosts performance -- what it would be is   
   not obvious -- such a design needs an enormous mass ratio, much higher   
   than that of an ordinary chemical rocket.   
      
   The Orion guys did build and fly a small chemical-explosive demonstrator,   
   which is now in the Air & Space Museum, but it was built to show basic   
   feasibility and flight stability, not to have high performance.   
   --   
   "Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend."    |   Henry Spencer   
                                   -- George Herbert       | henry@spsystems.net   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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