Posted on 09/26/2025 11:34:48 PM PDT by Jonty30
What has zero moving parts, yet can blast an aerial vehicle to velocities beyond Mach 5? The answer is the recently flight-tested Atmospheric Test of Launched Airbreathing System (ATLAS) powered by a new solid-fueled ramjet built by GE Aerospace.
Hypersonic missiles capable of flying well in excess of five times the speed of sound promise to revolutionize warfare and aviation in general in a manner not seen since the sound barrier was broken in 1947. Not only could it turn flights from London to Sydney into an afternoon jaunt instead of a 22-plus-hour ordeal, it could also make current air defenses obsolete as vehicles blast by before defenders would even detect them.
The tricky bit is how to get the vehicle into the hypersonic range where it can cruise under its own power or fly as a Mach 5+ glider. For the ATLAS program, GE Aerospace has come up with the latest in Solid-Fuel Ramjet (SFRJ) technology that seems to operate almost by magic.
(Excerpt) Read more at newatlas.com ...
Possible related...
If so here’s the stinker...
“...A ramjet is a variant of an air breathing jet engine that does not include a rotary compressor; rather, it uses the engine’s forward motion to compress the incoming air. A ramjet cannot function at zero airspeed and therefore cannot be used to power an aircraft in all phases of flight...”
Haven’t “scram jets” been around since the 60’s? What are they going to “invent” next, the “transistor”
Interesting. I didn’t realize that.
It must be those single crystal blades that China still hasn’t mastered in its jet engine programs.
That’s what it claims to be, albeit solid fuel versus liquid. Calling it “magic” is pure hyperbole.
Still need an engine with moving parts to get it up to speed.
The Nazi’s had similar in WWII with the V1, it had no rotating compressor components and was referred to as a pulsejet. The French had actual ramjet’s flying in the 50’s.
“Not only could it turn flights from London to Sydney into an afternoon jaunt instead of a 22-plus-hour ordeal,…”
At one time and not very long ago that 22 hours would have been a jaunt.
What is an engine test that doesn’t really test the actual engine?
Our cat did that the other day with a Plastic Straw she found ,LOL
“I don’t get how they can develop an engine with no moving parts.”
Me either. How do you turn the fuel off?
Yes. All scramjets (supersonic combustion ramjets) have no moving parts. Once a plane is to speed, the wind pressure takes over and forces air through the scramjet where it is ignited and blasted out. Nothing moves.
See my book, “The Quest for the Orbital Jet,” in “The Hypersonic Revolution, volume III.
They mean a ramjet? 40s technology.
Its called a ramjet. The technology has been around a long time.
https://science.howstuffworks.com/transport/engines-equipment/ramjet.htm
I'm not sure how air will enter this thing.
Basic Nazi technology. That is how V1’s flew.
No moving parts in the actual jet engine. Go to YTube and you can make them, yourself.
Heck, my goofy Siamese cat likes to steal the plastic straw out my drink, then scamper off somewhere so she can have a good chew on it.
Generally, the only moving part of a ramjet engine is the engine itself.
Ram Jets and scramjets are incredibly simple just effectively a tube no moving parts
The air is simply compressed going into the tube at high speed then dump fuel in and ignited
https://www.clearias.com/scramjet-engine/
When I was a boy (I am 77 now), I built a Jetex powered model plane. It had a slower burning solid fuel powered engine, driving it.
Slow was for the time fast. I had a delta wing and heat deflector to protect plane from burning up.
Here is what the engine looked like when I was playing with it as a boy.
http://archivesite.jetex.org/motors/motors-50.html#exportBC
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