History Main / SpacePlane

* Starship, a spacecraft designed by [[UsefulNotes/SpaceExplorationTechnologies SpaceX]], is also designed to be launched by a separate "Super Heavy" booster. Though it's closer, as the Booster is being developed to land and be reused like the Falcon 9 rocket.

* The X-37, which is launched by an Atlas V rocket. It doesn't carry nearly enough fuel -- fully loaded, it masses just under 5 metric tons. Compare with the Space Shuttle, which masses ''2,000''.

* Several in the Greg Mandel series by Creator/PeterFHamilton given that Event Horizon is investing heavily in the space industry as part of the post-[[GlobalWarming Warming]] economic resurgence. This gives Event Horizon a monopoly on the [[HurlItIntoTheSun disposal of radioactive waste]] for a time, and at the rollout of the first [[Creator/ArthurCClarke Clarke]]-model spaceplane their CEO dodges the question of how the factories for making the spaceplane have been built in marginal political constituencies in exchange for the government contract.

Please note that this list only include SSTO (Single Stage to Orbit) or to sub-orbit to qualify.[[note]]Mid-air refueling or drop tanks may or may not count.[[/note]] Nobody's built one, as of 2021. The most promising design so far is the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylon_(spacecraft) Skylon,]] a British-designed European project, which recently cleared a key hurdle in engine development. Therefore, the following are ''not'' space planes by the definition used here:

** As of 2022, [=SpaceX=]'s most advanced vehicles are only partially reusable, but the currently planned Starship programme aims to test a fully reusable rocket.

* [=YouTuber=] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfc2Jg1gkKA Everyday Astronaut]] provides a pretty thorough deconstruction of this trope. He points out that the reason space planes aren't practical in real life, compared to multi-stage rockets, is that they need extra fuel just to carry hardware that's useless in space (wings, landing gear, etc.). Whereas a multistage rocket only needs to carry enough fuel for the actual payload, even if you make each stage reusable, the way [=SpaceX=] does.

* No real spacecraft meeting the description of this trope has ever been built, and with the possible exception of the Skylon (see below), most attempts at building them have been cancelled. SSTO spaceplanes were something of a trend among designers in the late 1980s and 1990s, but most current spacecraft designers ([[UsefulNotes/SpaceX [=SpaceX=]]] and Blue Origin, for example) favor multi-stage rockets and capsules.

** Taken UpToEleven with the Puddle Jumper, which operates just fine in atmosphere, in space, or even underwater.

*** The [=XR2=] Ravenstar is probably one of the more awesome examples from Orbiter, as its basically a Space capable reimagining of the [[RealLife/CoolPlane SR-71 Blackbird]], and has the gloriously powerful engines to match.

* ''Franchise/{{Stargate}}'''s Goa'uld gliders, human X-302s, and Wraith darts can fly in space and in atmosphere.

[[folder:Real Life]] (None of these have really gotten off the ground... yet.)
* The Silbervogel design from [[StupidJetpackHitler Nazi Germany]].
* The British [[http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/H/HOTOL.html HOTOL]] (Horizontal Take Off Or Landing) project, cancelled in 1988 after development problems.
* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylon_(spacecraft) Skylon]] project, successor to HOTOL, presently in development. Mostly a project of Reaction Engines Limited (the British company building it), although it has received a small grant from the European Space Agency. It's currently both the most advanced and the most realistic SSTO project, and it looks like something straight out of [[Franchise/StarWars Padme Amidala's garage]].
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockwell_X-30 X-30]] "National Aerospace Plane", which was never built. A smaller version, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_X-43 X-43]], reached a maximum speed of nearly Mach 10 using a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus_rocket Pegasus missile]] as a booster. Keep in mind that to be a true Space Plane, an aircraft would need to reach somewhere around Mach 25, depending on what altitude you were at, ''without'' a booster.
* The XCOR [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_rocketplane Lynx]] rocketplane. It will only be able to reach Mach 2 or 3, however, and will be limited to brief, sub-orbital spaceflight only.
* There are several proposed designs which use a magnetic launch system to achieve the necessary launch velocity. Naturally none have been built due to cost; it could also be argued that any craft launched by such a system would not be a true space-plane, since it wouldn't be taking off under its own power.
* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Falcon_Project#HyperSoar Hypersoar]] was a commercial airliner project that would fly to the edge of space and skip across the atmosphere, making it extremely fast and thrifty with fuel while avoiding the Concorde's noise problems. It was quickly shelved when it was realized the skipping effect couldn't be done effectively without [[NauseaFuel repeated +1G/-1G shifts in acceleration.]]

* The eponymous ''Film/StarlightOne'' hypersonic sub-orbital passenger liner in the 1983 disaster MadeForTV Movie of the same name, based on experimental NASA spaceplane technology. The "disaster" stuff happens when space debris damages it heat shielding and thruster controls, leaving it stranded in orbit.

* The 1950s adventure series by Australian author Ivan Southall featuring AcePilot Simon Black and his supersonic aircraft Firefly. In ''Simon Black in Space'' the Firefly 3 is capable of flight outside the Earth's atmosphere.

* Buran, the Soviet equivalent, which used a single powerful rocket to get into orbit, rather than relying on its own power. The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK-GLI OK-GLI test vehicle]] (similar to NASA's ''Enterprise'', but with four turbojets mounted on the rear and a fuel tank taking up the aft quarter of the cargo bay) ''could'' take off from a runway on its own [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ifMPiPpxKo (as seen in this video starting about 7 minutes in)]] but had no ability to make it to space.

Please note that this list only include SSTO (Single Stage to Orbit) or to sub-orbit to qualify.[[note]]Mid-air refueling or drop tanks may or may not count.[[/note]] Nobody's built one, as of 2017. The most promising design so far is the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylon_(spacecraft) Skylon,]] a British-designed European project, which recently cleared a key hurdle in engine development. Therefore, do not include the following:

Please note that this list only include SSTO (Single Stage to Orbit) or to sub-orbit to qualify.[[note]]Mid-air refueling or drop tanks may or may not count.[[/note]] Nobody's built one, as of 2017. The most promising design so far is the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylon_(spacecraft) Skylon]], a British-designed European project, which recently cleared a key hurdle in engine development. Therefore, do not include the following:
* The Space Shuttle, which required two boosters, a launch pad and a huge fuel tank to get into orbit. It was also incapable of any real powered flight, having to glide back to Earth. It pretty much defined the term 'FlyingBrick'.

* The Black Stallions from the novel of Creator/DaleBrown. They can go to orbit, as the first usage of one in ''Strike Force'' shows, but sub-orbital is enough most of the time.