Don't know if you've seen this before Snowcrash, but I thought this may be of interest to you.http://www.reactionengines.co.uk/skylon.html

This came up on the science news feed, could it replace the shuttle?

Interesting concept with its two-mode engine.  

But why do I think they wont find the money for it, lets hope they do.

Quote
A revolutionary UK spaceplane concept has been boosted by the conclusions of an important technical review.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13506289


EDIT:
Me and Diesel both posted about this, what was that, great minds think alike?

I have merged the two topics together.   


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I like the idea of anything that can get the price per kg to orbit down.

The most damming sentence I found was...
"Skylon has been in development in the UK in various guises for nearly 30 years."

And NASA's biggest problem with the shuttle was the tiles to withstand re-entry heat. They had/have a proper space plane design but the shuttles tiles are not good enough for it.

But all things said and done, it's good to see us and ESA looking at these problems. You've gotta have a dream for one to come true. (Cpt. Sensible)