>>12066713No, Venture Star wouldn't have ever worked.
The original design called for a very optimistic wet-dry mass ratio which would require either aluminum balloon tanks or CFC nearly-balloon-tanks, as well as VERY optimistic engine performance metrics.
While working on the X-33, the subscale sub-orbital Venture Star technology pathfinder vehicle, it was discovered that CFC structures using technology and techniques of the time would actually turn out heavier than aluminum tanks, meaning that for Venture Star to work their only option would be aluminum balloon tanks (ie, it was not a feasible design).
Worse, the engines they developed for the X-33 weren't even close to the performance metrics necessary to make Venture Star work, not just in terms of thrust (since X-33 used a smaller engine than Venture Star needed), but in terms of Isp and TWR.
The fact that Venture Star required a wet-dry mass ratio beyond the capabilities of technology at the time, AND required propulsion far in advance of what could actually be built, meant that it would NEVER have worked.
The metallic TPS was the best thing to come out of the program. It would have helped Shuttle, but more importantly it would have been useful on a reusable TSTO launch vehicle based off of the DC-X design (vertical takeoff, vertical landing, sideways reentry).
