Hi Gerry,
I am not from Laminar Research; just a flight simmer from downunder.
To some extent I am like you whereby I want to replace Disc1 with a USB dongle just to preserve the integrity of the DVD,
The official answer I received from Laminar Research some time back when XP11 was released was NO and there was no intention or plans at that time. It was a disappointment considering XP10 has a USB dongle available.
I have just sent an email to my contacts within Laminar to review the situation.
In the meantime the only possible solution I can offer is acquire a portable DVD drive that will allow you to insert disc 1 to run X-Plane.
Good luck
Glenn