On 2/10/2018 5:45 PM, Caleuche wrote:
> And setting aside acceleration, at 30km altitude my 800 Dton spherical
> ship modeled here has a maximum velocity equal to about Mach 45
> (compared to about Mach 9.6 at 10km altitude). Missiles with peak
> velocities of around Mach 3.5 are going to have a hard time
> intercepting it, though given friction heating involved, I don't think
> they'd typically want to cruise around at Mach 45. That doesn't match
> the initial describe situation of a free trader lifting off from a
> planet and some force on the ground wanting to shoot it down, but
> something to keep in mind with respect to the defensibility of TL6
> airspace from free traders.

Also keep in mind that there are maximum speeds for in-atmosphere
operations for grav vehicles/ships.  Depending on the level of
streamlining, that tops out at ~Mach 1, if that.

--
Kurt Feltenberger
xxxxxx@thepaw.org/xxxxxx@yahoo.com
“Before today, I was scared to live, after today, I'm scared I'm not living enough." - Me