3 ms·

At what point are these things no longer airplanes and just rockets?

• a-priori 16y ago
  "A scramjet is a type of jet engine designed to operate at the speeds of rockets. Its main difference from a rocket is that it collects air from the atmosphere to burn its fuel rather than carrying an oxidizing substance on board. More conventional jets (turbojets, turbofans, and ramjets) share this characteristic but are unsuitable for the high speeds at which scramjets can operate." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramjet#Simple_description http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramjet#Simple_description So there is a difference between a scramjet and a rocket, beyond the speed that it travels.
• psadauskas 16y ago
  When they carry 100% of their own fuel. This one gets oxygen from the atmosphere.
  • blhack 16y ago
    Aha! I was mostly commenting on the wings being useless though (until it slows down)... Well...not useless, but not really being used to generate any lift.
    • teamonkey 16y ago
      This plane is a Waverider. It uses its own supersonic shockwave to generate lift. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waverider http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waverider
  • stcredzero 16y ago
    Years ago, on a "hacker-oriented" site, most everyone would've known this automatically through their interest in rockets and sci-fi. Times have changed. If you carry 100% of your own fuel, you are subject to a nasty Rocket Equation. The fraction of your own weight that can be payload becomes vanishingly small, which can lead to structural and economic problems.