At that altitude there just isn’t nearly enough air available to work with.

There is plenty of air…in fact in 500 km altitude some air can still be detected..but space starts at 100 km for specific reason.
Most aero braking will happen between 80-30 km altitude for space rockets so there has to be lots and lots of air….not for 747 or F-16 though.

Solar Impulse carries half or more of its mass as batteries for nite flying…so a bigger ship can easily carry a small jettisonable rocket.

It is big..it is in wingarea biggest ever designed ( doodled as you prefer )..latest has 110 m span. The lifting fuselage sorta doubles the area.

The flying flat iron/ brick called shuttle actually revealed that the control can be regained ( aerodynamic ) at 110 km altitude. Shuttle design has 50 x more wingloading than this what I am proposing.

Sir HOPSALOT !

I had this space going idea too; http://www.avcanada.ca/forums2/viewtopic.php?f=94&t=116239

Possibly you could reconsider when you realize that this is still coutable with Bernoulli physics.

Vincent Burnelli / De Monge lifting body retought in an solar ship in almost size of the Paul Allen Stratolaunch would actually be able to operate at 46 km ( correct 36 km ) ( in paper the lift force at 900 km/h ) brings the 25 metric tons rocket into that altitude ( 46 km ). I did not even bother count the absolute altitude for the ship without payload but it may be under 50 km ( I hoped for 80 km initially ) I also had no precise data of the air qualities above 45 km ( 38 km ).

Key element to understand this is the low IAS number…the plane will fly at very low IAS number all the way to avoid the coffin corner. You all understand this right ?

Have a good day ladies and gentlemen !

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EDIT : Sorry the altitude where I counted the highest altitude with payload is to 36 km…..I had it written down elsewhere and had to recheck it.

So also the empty ceiling has to be lower perhaps just 38-40 km.

I hope someone gets this. As I am pretty fed up trying to make a solar powered aeroplane…as the company who made the Solar Impulse solar cells won’t even answer me.

It is very small circle that is dedicated to solar flight….and the newest solar panels of film thin kind can deliver 30% efficiency ( NASA ) thus tripling the Helios output…if in similar flyer. Helios cruised above 230 km/h at 30 km.