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Hypersonic ramjet engine designing time cut from months to seconds by GE Aerospace
Interesting Engineering ^ | May 20, 2026 | Abhishek Bhardwaj

Posted on 05/20/2026 7:52:49 AM PDT by Red Badger

The first preliminary design layout for a hypersonic ramjet engine is a strong proof point that shows the tech’s potential to revolutionize the design process.

A hypersonic dual-mode ramjet from GE Aerospace. Stock image. GE Aerospace

US-based GE Aerospace has announced a historical feat, which is producing the preliminary design layout for a hypersonic ramjet engine in mere seconds.

The feat was made possible with the help of a generative artificial intelligence-powered app that was demonstrated by a team of AI researchers at the company. According to the team, the hypersonic ramjet engine’s primary design layout met all criteria for safe flight.

The development has come at a time when the United States Department of Defense (DoD) and the commercial aviation sector are prioritizing the speed of new developments to meet air travel demand. The company says it is trying out generative AI to keep pace with rising expectations by putting new tools and capabilities in engineers’ hands now.

Designing a hypersonic ramjet engine with generative AI

The team of researchers at GE Aerospace said that they were able to simultaneously account for multiple flight conditions and scenarios that a customer would typically outline to inform their hypersonic ramjet engine design. Using GE Aerospace’s generative AI app allowed engineers to reduce this early design study work from weeks and months to seconds in a day to arrive at a similar result.

“GE Aerospace is all-in on AI,” Joe Vinciquerra, General Manager and Senior Executive Director, GE Aerospace Research, said. “The use of generative AI to design a hypersonic speed ramjet is a great example of how we are bringing together AI science with decades of embedded know-how to shape the future of commercial and military jet engine technologies.”

He added that by using generative AI tools, GE Aerospace can significantly reduce design cycle times, “enabling us to be faster to test and ultimately faster to commercialize the best, most proven end product.”

The first preliminary design layout for a hypersonic ramjet engine is a strong proof point that shows AI’s potential to revolutionize the design process, he added.

GE Aerospace’s recent wins

Further, GE Aerospace researchers are also expanding the application of their innovative generative AI design app to accelerate commercial jet engine technologies through the CFM International Revolutionary Innovation for Sustainable Engines (RISE) program. The RISE program is advancing a suite of technologies, such as open fan architecture, for next-generation narrowbody engines.

Recently, GE Aerospace was awarded a US Air Force contract to complete the preliminary design review (PDR) for its new GE426 engine. The GE426 engine is a next-generation propulsion system purpose-built for the medium-thrust-class ACP mission, which is required for uncrewed, autonomous combat aircraft.

Apart from the large engines needed to power fighter jets and commercial planes, the company is also investing in small, affordable engines that can be produced at scale to power autonomous combat platforms, collaborative combat aircraft, and other advanced applications. While used in the first instance for initial design of a hypersonic ramjet engine, the new generative AI-enabled app can also be used to come up with new and better-performing designs for newer types of engines to power drones.

Earlier, the company had also cleared the XA102 adaptive cycle engine for assembly before it is integrated into the sixth-generation Boeing F-47 fighter jet.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; History; Military/Veterans; Travel
KEYWORDS: aircraft; aviation; ramjet

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To: SaveFerris

No, I had one................


21 posted on 05/20/2026 8:29:57 AM PDT by Red Badger (Iryna Zarutska, May 22, 2002 Kyiv, Ukraine – August 22, 2025 Charlotte, North Carolina Say her name)
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To: Red Badger

I think it might improve the 0-60 performance time ...


22 posted on 05/20/2026 8:34:19 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the Days of Lot; They Did Eat, They Drank, They Bought, They Sold ......)
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To: ComputerGuy
"Today’s fighters are so streamlined they don’t look like there’s any room for fuel. Especially given the amount jets burn every minute."

2160 gallons internally. 4500 with drop tanks. A couple of minutes on afterburner uses more fuel than I do in a year with my car.

23 posted on 05/20/2026 8:34:38 AM PDT by TexasGator
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To: Carry_Okie

“Joe Vinciquerra, General Manager and Senior Executive Director, GE Aerospace Research”

Great name for that position - “Vinciguerra” means “Win The War” in Italian.


24 posted on 05/20/2026 8:36:28 AM PDT by aquila48 (Do not let them make you "care" ! Guilting you is how they control you. )
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To: V_TWIN

“At this rate time travel will be a reality by Christmas. 😁”

We are traveling through time. Only if you go at the speed of light does time stop.


25 posted on 05/20/2026 8:38:01 AM PDT by TexasGator
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To: SaveFerris

26 posted on 05/20/2026 8:40:16 AM PDT by Red Badger (Iryna Zarutska, May 22, 2002 Kyiv, Ukraine – August 22, 2025 Charlotte, North Carolina Say her name)
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To: Red Badger

I bet the Chinese used their AI tech to steal GE’s new tech in the same amount of time.


27 posted on 05/20/2026 8:41:20 AM PDT by shotgun
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To: aquila48
“Vinciguerra” means “Win The War” in Italian.

I would have expected a "g" instead of a "q" for that word in a Romance language.

28 posted on 05/20/2026 8:41:41 AM PDT by Carry_Okie (The tree of liberty needs a rope.)
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To: Red Badger

I saw a half scale cross section drawing of GE’s hyperburner more than 30 years ago. I was thinking to myself that my fellow designers were such total badasses! 30 years ago, really, we ain’t there yet? We were/are standing on the shoulders of giants...AI, pfft.


29 posted on 05/20/2026 8:43:48 AM PDT by OftheOhio (never could dance but always could fight - Romeo company)
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To: Red Badger
small, affordable engines that can be produced at scale to power autonomous combat platforms

Affordable for military use probably means too expensive to be adapted to commercial use.

30 posted on 05/20/2026 8:44:19 AM PDT by PAR35
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To: TexasGator

I’ve got a 90 gallon aquarium. The jet in your pic doesn’t look like it could hold that much. I need to stand next to one. I also don’t know squat about jet engines.


31 posted on 05/20/2026 8:54:57 AM PDT by ComputerGuy
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To: Red Badger

What could go wrong! The number one rule of being a great designer. Murphy’s law (aerospace engineer Edward A. Murphy Jr.) when you know idiots are geniuses when it comes to screwing something up, lol.


32 posted on 05/20/2026 8:57:08 AM PDT by OftheOhio (never could dance but always could fight - Romeo company)
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To: fuzzylogic

Using Claude Code, I’ve developed three personal health apps to do things no commercial app has done for me (hiking physiology, sleep, glucose analysis). The “time to market” and code quality is outstanding. I can iterate ideas for new features and areas to explore in nothing flat.

I have an “addressable market” of one — me. I had the ability to write these apps pre-AI, but just never wanted to invest the time. My time invested is probably 2% to 5% of what it would have taken me to write them from scratch without AI.

It is truly astonishing.


33 posted on 05/20/2026 8:57:13 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: ComputerGuy
"The jet in your pic doesn’t look like it could hold that much. I need to stand next to one."

It does.


34 posted on 05/20/2026 8:57:22 AM PDT by TexasGator
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To: Carry_Okie

It is a “g” - guerra.


35 posted on 05/20/2026 8:59:30 AM PDT by aquila48 (Do not let them make you "care" ! Guilting you is how they control you. )
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To: Red Badger

GiGo


36 posted on 05/20/2026 9:00:35 AM PDT by algore ( )
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To: TexasGator

It’s yuge!


37 posted on 05/20/2026 9:02:54 AM PDT by ComputerGuy
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To: Red Badger

And yet, GE still can’t make a decent washing machine and dryer


38 posted on 05/20/2026 9:04:46 AM PDT by centermass_socrates (Visualize whirled peas.)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

What programming language(s) does it know?


39 posted on 05/20/2026 9:05:10 AM PDT by ComputerGuy
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To: algore

GiGo BOOM!..............


40 posted on 05/20/2026 9:06:06 AM PDT by Red Badger (Iryna Zarutska, May 22, 2002 Kyiv, Ukraine – August 22, 2025 Charlotte, North Carolina Say her name)
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