I think I got the space plane thing. My goal was to be able to 'reuse' the entire vehicle with only a refueling. The mission profile is to shuttle Kerbals to and from orbit safely and cheaply.
The trick to building one of these is to make it light enough so you can get good speed with the jets and orbit with only 2 rockets, and sticking enough wings on to get the lift you need to take the load off the jets. So here it is:
The Space Planar 4!
Taking off at a 40 degree angle.
At around 15k meters, kick on the rockets. The extra speed should ram enough air into the jets to keep 'em running until about 22k or 24k meters, when you'll need to shut them off and hit orbit on the rockets alone.
And there she is, in a nice 75-80k orbit, with fuel to maneuver with yet.
And after a single orbit, inbound for a soft landing.
(Due to a nasty crash, I am unable to post an image of the Space Planar 4 safely on the ground (not a system crash (I messed up, stalled, and got stuck in a flat spin on approach)))