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> The Air Force recently broke the record for the highest thrust producing air-breathing hypersonic engine the service has ever tested in its history, at least
by beefman 7y ago
> The Air Force recently broke the record for the highest thrust producing air-breathing hypersonic engine the service has ever tested in its history, at least that we know about.
Nuclear scramjets achieved 3 times this thrust "record" under similar test conditions more than half a century ago.
- dtparr 7y agoDo nuclear scramjets count as air breathing? They don't use atmospheric oxygen for combustion, iirc, which is what I think of when I hear air breathing.
- DuskStar 7y agoThey're air breathing in the same sense that electric planes are, I suppose? They use air for propulsion, but not for chemical reactions.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- ian0 7y agoProject Pluto belongs [0] in the "what could possibly go wrong" bin: >> The SLAM, as proposed, would carry a payload of many nuclear weapons to be dropped on multiple targets, making the cruise missile into an unmanned bomber. After delivering all its warheads, the missile could then spend weeks flying over populated areas at low altitudes, causing tremendous ground damage with its shock wave and fallout. When it finally lost enough power to fly, and crash-landed, the engine would have a good chance of spewing deadly radiation for months to come. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pluto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pluto
- scottlocklin 7y agoThank god we have MSNBC to keep the rooskie from sapping and impurifying our precious bodily fluids. https://thediplomat.com/2019/02/russia-conducts-test-of-nuclear-powered-cruise-missile/ https://thediplomat.com/2019/02/russia-conducts-test-of-nucl...
- yborg 7y agoThere is no combustion in a nuclear thermal ramjet, so those weren't scramjet engines.
- pfdietz 7y agoMore importantly, that was an ordinary ramjet, where the fluid flow inside the engine is subsonic.