Didn't he say in the Ariane 5 is dead interview that it's a cross between a Concorde and a rail gun, so think super streamlined glider, launched by maglev, capt

Didn't he say in the Ariane 5 is dead interview that it's a cross between a Concorde and a rail gun, so think super streamlined glider, launched by maglev, captured by maglev (recovering some energy energy on capture). High speed rail without most of the rail. The big issue would be air traffic control at launch and landing. 600 m/s (Mach 2) at 0.5g acceleration would require 36km of launch rail which is kind of a lot. But you could loop the track and reduce the acceleration to make up for centripetal forces — a 200m radius loop might be about right, and once you use a loop you can go a lot faster (and this explains the name: hypersonic loop). I suppose it might skip short distances requiring pylons or something for speed top ups and travel at lower speed.