what if you launched two vehiucles, but the first vehicle is more like a bullet that disintegrates and causes a wake in front for the second vehicle to pass thru with less drag?
As soon as the first one hits the air it starts to slow down. The second one, as it's hauling ass through the wake, doesn't slow down. The difference in speeds gets very big, very quickly. As such the second one, the payload, would find itself smashing into the first one in short order.
It doesn't matter how many you send. If your scenario relies on the fact that the last in line must be the fastest of the group, it's always going to run in to the object directly in front of it.
I was imagining air behaving like water. If you send first projectile it'll slow down but move some water to the sides. Second will slow down less so it'll catch up with the first one but it will also push some water to the sides. Third also will catch up with the previous ones but each subsequent one will get farther as it travels through space punched out by previous ones.
I don't think it's practical in any manner but I think such brute-forcing stream of projectiles out of atmosphere by literally punching hole in it might be nice to look at.
That still involves sending the first at the requisite speed, and any drafting you might get is limited at best. It'd also leave a highly unstable wake trail, as any object ripping through the air at 7-8km/s is going to tear things up.
