During the development of a “reusable” vehicle system that grew into the STS, one proposal was a two-stage vehicle that took off and landed as a plane; the first stage was to be a much larger winged vehicle that would haul the orbiter/reentry vehicle to high altitude using aerodynamics to save fuel and simplify recycling for the next flight. We wound up with a rocket-launched system, with the liquid-fueled “main” engines drinking out of a tank that was not reusable, and were dead weight, riding back to Earth in an area protected by the reentry plasma. Most of the pop comes from those SRBs.
Thanks Robert A. Cook, PE!
An XB-70 is still available at Wright-Patt.
70,000 foot altitude, Mach 2+ . You won’t need the long range it has - but just put in enough fuel to “point up at high speed” 8<)
An you can get a “free” VERY LARGE bomb bay to drop loads from while at altitude.
SR-71/ variants “dropped” “fighter-sized” Mach 3+ hypersonic drone planes “up” from them at higher altitudes and even higher speeds. I understand 120,000+ feet ops were routinely run.
The B-70’s bomb bay might force you to lower than supersonic, but you gain much altitude and easier separation problems.
(Oh right. These were all 1960’s and 1970’s technology. Never mind. Can’t use them today. They haven’t been reviewed by vast computer models and tens of years of expensive research. )