What kind of launch vehicle for manned Spaceflight?

[nkt]

Originally Posted by damocles

The implication is that the scramjet kicked on after it left the muzzle of the low pressure gas gun and that the scramjet itself was built to artillery shell standards. If the scramjet was built like a rocket assisted artillery shell then it was built with a gas sealed base that mechanically unlocked and opened the minute the projectile left the muzzle so that the scramjet had a free flow gas path.

Yes, it would seem that way. However, it is far more likely that the missile was launched from a sabot, and the burn kicked in as the sabot fell away, letting air in to contact with the fuel.

I can look up some of the details of prior art if you want.

[damocles]

As to the GASL experiments I would be interested in more information. I tend to agree about the sabot. It does fit a light gas gun launch profile.

http://www.islandone.org/LEOBiblio/HVIS-98.PDF

For those interested in various LEO gun launcher solutions, I refer the parties to this information.

http://lifesci3.arc.nasa.gov/SpaceSettlement/Nowicki/SPBI1GU.HTM

It should disabuse many of the notion of using a functioning inside the barrel scramjet as a spindle projectile, though it does not prohibit the idea of using a maglev post-launch ignited rocket-assisted spindle projectile in a light gas gun to achieve LEO.