Reactionless drive ships orbital flight in 3rd ed physics?

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

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...

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Yes, but the 1956 Karman line was calculated based on the capabilities of the Bell X-2. That had a thrust-to weight ratio of 3 to 5 fully loaded but better than 1 to 1 just before the fuel ran out.

We can do a little better than that today but not with a payload-carrying craft. The numbers are already far higher than the theoretical winged orbiters from Space 1e.