There&#x27;s at least one very large drawback with the Skylon design for orbital flight.
You drag those air breathing engines with huge inlets and heat exchangers all the way to orbit, plus all that extra hydrogen tankage, large landing gear etc.<p>As a first stage it would make a lot more sense. Then launch a much smaller pure rocket second stage from there. Staging at high altitude with low dynamic pressure should be relatively easy, probably easier than high speed atmospheric flight or re-entry from orbital velocities with Skylon.