On Wed, Sep 27, 2017 at 01:41:58AM -0400, Richard Aiken wrote:
> Google tells me that most military aircraft have service ceilings in
> excess of 50,000 feet.  It also tells me that a mass of 150 pounds
> actually weighs ~149.92 pounds at 10,000 feet elevation.  So
> . . . maybe the ship can just barely make it?

If the ship's hull is very resistant to heat and suitably shaped, the
ship might be able to brute-force power its way up to orbital speeds
while in the upper atmosphere without wings or streamlining.

Even a house brick could get a hypersonic lift-to-drag ratio of about
0.4:1 at sufficient speed and suitable orientation.  That's pretty
awful, but it would be enough to escape a world with surface gravity
about 1.07 times its rated acceleration.

If you add even the most modest streamlining, a lifting body shape
and/or stubby wings, lift-to-drag would go to about 1 or 1.5.  That
would be enough to escape 1.4 to 1.8 times its rated acceleration.

A craft actually designed for hypersonic operation could get L/D
around 2.5, allowing escape of a world up to 2.7 times its rated
acceleration.

Of course these figures would all be greatly enhanced with even a
small amount of contragrav, thusters that can temporarily exceed rated
acceleration, or some mode of operation that is more effective in
atmosphere than in vacuum.

- Tim