The NASP or "Orient Express" program (and SDI) inspired me to take interest in math and science as a young skull full of mush in the 80's. Sure thought we would be further along by now. Space Station Freedom was supposed to be completed by 1992!
The program to develop what is called the National Aerospace Plane (NASP), designated the X-30, had its roots in a highly classified, Special Access Required, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) project called Copper Canyon, which ran from 1982 to 1985. Originally conceived as a feasibility study for a single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) airplane which could take off and land horizontally, Copper Canyon became the starting point for what Ronald Reagan called:<1> "...a new Orient Express that could, by the end of the next decade, take off from Dulles Airport and accelerate up to twenty-five times the speed of sound, attaining low earth orbit or flying to Tokyo within two hours..."
Were getting closer! I’d hate to have to pay for the ticket though!
Think about it. If a sub-orbital space shot for tourists is in the $200,000 range, and those go Mach 3, what do you think a flight in somting like this is going to be?!
Quite frankly, I think someone with a sub-orbital craft will get a NYC to London flight service going before a scramjet will.
And after what Burt Rutan & Branson are doing, I think SS3 might just be that!
(SS4 would be an orbital craft.... At least in my day dreams....)