Vehicles, such as aircraft, may include turbine-based combined cycle power plants (TBCC) for power to achieve high-mach speeds. Cooling systems for such TBCC may include a turbine-generator arranged to be driven for rotation by ambient air to reduce the temperature of the ambient air while providing electric power for use under cocooning of a primary gas turbine engine in favor of a scramjet engine during high-mach travel.

Methods of powering a heat engine with a remote lasers are disclosed, where the ambient air surrounding the engine is used as the working fluid. All methods include inputting the ambient air into the engine, absorbing laser optical radiation, turning it into heat, supplying the heat to the air, harvesting mechanical work from expanding air and releasing the air back into surrounding atmosphere.

Passive reduction of internal jet engine component temperature in supersonic and hypersonic vehicles results from use of nanocomposite optical ceramic materials between the heat-generating portions of each jet engine and the ambient environment, allowing heat dissipation from the jet engine components directly to the ambient environment. A propulsion-airframe integrated scramjet aircraft includes a jet engine and an airframe supporting the jet engine, with at least a portion of the airframe between a heat-generating portion of the jet engine and an ambient environment comprising a nanocomposite optical ceramic material in the form of a panel or a grid of windows each supported within a frame. The nanocomposite optical ceramic material portion of the airframe disposed between the heat-generating portion of the jet engine and the ambient environment is infrared-transparent, and may transmit at least 75% of heat energy from the heat-generating portion of the jet engine to the ambient environment.

A flight vehicle engine includes an isolator with a swept-back wedge to improve flow mixing. The wedge includes forward shock-anchoring locations, such as edges or rapidly-curved portions, that anchor oblique shocks in situations where the isolator has sufficient back pressure. The swept-back wedge may also create swept oblique shocks along its length. Boundary layer flow streamlines are diverted running parallel to or parallel but moving outward conically to the swept-wedge leading edge moving outboard and upward. The non-viscous flow outside the boundary layer is processed through the swept-back ramp shock and diverted outboard and upward as well. The outboard aft portion of the wedge at the sidewall intersection may also induce shocks and divert flow near the walls closer toward the walls and upward, and/or improve flow mixing.

A propulsion system includes a turbine engine and a ramjet engine. A turbine engine inlet section restriction device permits an inlet airflow to a turbine engine inlet in a first (low speed) operating state of the propulsion system, and restricts the inlet airflow to the turbine engine inlet in a second (high speed) operating state of the propulsion system. A combustor inlet flow control device, in the first operating state, provides an airflow from a compressor to the turbine engine combustor, and restricts an airflow from a ramjet bleed air passage, and, in the second operating state, provides a ramjet inlet bleed airflow to the turbine engine combustor, while restricting airflow from the compressor. In the second operating state, the turbine engine drives at least one accessory gearbox to drive at least one accessory component.

A jet engine includes an inlet (11) which takes in air and a combustor (12) which combusts fuel with the air. The combustor (12) has an injector (20), a plurality of flame stabilizers (21, 22) and a vanishment section (31). The injector (20) injects the fuel. The plurality of flame stabilizers (21, 22) can maintain the flame (F) used for combustion in the combustor (12). The vanishment section (31) is provided to cover the dent of the first flame stabilizer (21) which is situated on the side near to the inlet in the plurality of flame stabilizers (21, 22), and vanishes with the passage of time in the flight.

An aerodynamic platform or spacecraft including a habitable 1G centripetal force rotating gravity producing interior corridor within an aerodynamic shell and an aerodynamic drone booster launch system with reentry and reuse capability.

A supersonic air intake of an aircraft propulsion assembly comprises: ? pipe with a longitudinal axis configured to guide the flow of air into the turbine engine, ? a speed reducer fixedly mounted inside the pipe along the longitudinal axis, ? at least one support arm linking the speed reducer to the pipe and having an upstream outer wall and a downstream outer wall together defining a cavity, and ? at least one de-icing device having an inner wall mounted in the cavity opposite the upstream outer wall in order to together define a calibrated de-icing space, as well as a member for supplying and a member for discharging a de-icing air flow in the de-icing space.

A high-speed, air-breathing propulsion engine includes an inlet configured to compress incoming air, a fuel injector configured to supply a fuel for mixing with the compressed incoming air to form a fuel-air mixture, and a combustor configured to burn the fuel-air mixture. The combustor includes a rotation detonation combustor system and a bluff body system that cooperate to generate thrust.

A propulsion system includes (a) a turbine engine including a compressor section, a combustor, and a turbine section, (b) a ramjet engine, and (c) an inlet section including a turbine engine inlet portion and a ramjet inlet portion, the inlet section providing an inlet airflow to the turbine engine and to the ramjet engine. The turbine engine inlet portion includes an expansion turbine arranged upstream of the compressor section.