Take-off is murder for high performance aircraft. It was a huge problem for the Concorde. In principle an airliner could have achieved better economics (both in terms of fuel efficiency and capital costs) if it flew a bit faster, around the speed of the SR-71, but then the takeoff problem becomes close to impossible. The SR-71, like the Black Horse, took off with a minimal fuel load and refueled in air. It seems that a civil airliner can't do that but maybe a spaceplane can.
Interesting. I do recall the U2 needed a chase car for landing [0], but I don't remember the challenges in takeoff. Any good resources on it? The concept I found in this essay occurred to me a few days ago after reading a news article about refueling aircraft for sale [1] and I thought hey why can't "they" "just" build an aircraft that takes off with normal jet fuel and at proper altitude and speed is refueled with rocket fuel? So I had to do a little digging, and it turns out it has been researched by NASA backed scientists, and it isn't even a half bad idea! Better than a lot of "why can't they just" ideas at least.
Anyways - if you have resources on the take off issues with high-performance aircraft, I would appreciate it :)
