AIR FRAME INTEGRATED SCRAMJET ENGINE INLET CONFIGURATION
1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 GENERAL A scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) is a variant of a ramjet air-breathing combustion jet engine in which the combustion process takes place in supersonic airflow. As in ramjets, a scramjet relies on high vehicle speed to forcefully compress and decelerate the incoming air before combustion (hence ramjet), but whereas a ramjet decelerates the air to subsonic velocities before combustion, airflow in a scramjet is supersonic throughout the entire engine. This allows the scramjet to efficiently operate at hyper-sonic speeds (Mach >5) theoretical projections place the top speed of a scramjet between Mach 12 and Mach 24, which is near orbital velocity. An airframe-integrated scramjet is basically composed of three basic components: a converging air intake, where incoming air is compressed and decelerated; a combustion, where gaseous fuel is burned with atmospheric oxygen to produce heat; and a diverging nozzle, wh