Airship to Orbit possible trajectory

Playing around with this chart suggests a way to orbit.  Just follow a trajectory that minimizes drag.  If drag is a problem, then climb to an altitude, then speed up.

This rates a honking big speculation alert since I'm not trained to analyze this stuff.  Just trying to understand it, that's all.

From right to left beginning at column R through to column L, trace the altitude in the row v velocity that will allow drag to be kept under control

The velocities are in 1/2 increments from left to right.  For example, orbital, 1/2 orbital, 1/4 orbital etc.

Since I've determined that drag may be understated here by up to a magnitude of 3, the small numbers are really much bigger.  But the comparisons are probably apt.  You can see in green the drag numbers for an airplane at 600 mph.  Plus the drag number in green for a car at 60 mph.

The numbers are necessarily small because the airship is very, very big.  Frickin' huge.  Bigger ship, more drag.  But with drag, you should get lift in compensation.  Enough lift will allow you to climb higher.  A beautiful thing.

Basically, the way to orbit is with a parabolic trajectory that will compensate for the exponential increase of drag with velocity.  What that means is that you just keep a speed limit at each altitude and don't exceed it.  The altitude determines the speed limit.

The Space Shuttle did something similar.  You may remember the announcer saying "go for throttle up".  This is not too long before the boosters separated.  The Shuttle was going through its MaxQ, where the aerodynamic pressure was at its greatest.  If it goes through that zone at too high a velocity, the ship could break apart because of the pressure.  Throttle up means put the hammer down because you are through the danger zone.

Hopefully the spreadsheet isn't too busy.  I simplified it as much as possible.