Reactionless drive ships orbital flight in 3rd ed physics?

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by johndallman

The Kármán line is the altitude at which going fast enough to support yourself by aerodynamic lift means you're at orbital velocity anyway.

Of course, that means there's enough drag that you'll slow down pretty fast if you stop thrusting. Flying into orbit like that isn't actually practical, just theoretically describable.

The Kármán line was calculated based on the aerospace capabilities of the 1950s, and presumably would be somewhat different if the same calculation was performed today...

Also, why would you stop thrusting? If you reach the Kármán limit flight profile, it doesn't mean you've finished orbital injection, it means that there's no longer much question of whether you can (assuming you're not going to run out of delta-V).