Russia and China tested hypersonic weapons. But the hypersonic flight is not only missiles. The hypersonic aircraft can jump out from the atmosphere and pull satellites behind it. When the aircraft starts to return the satellite will release and the sling effect will push it higher. And there its transport engines starts.
The scramjet or hypersonic ramjet is an engine that can accelerate aircraft to the speed of Mach 12+. The difference between scramjet and the rocket engine is that scramjet takes oxygen that it needs from the atmosphere. Hypersonic scramjets are straight tubes where is combustion chamber. When incoming air hits that point it will start to heat.
And the only problem with the scramjet engine is where the nozzle of fuel injection is put in the tube. The best way is to inject the fuel at the front of the tube. The scramjet engine would be ecological because the best fuel for that system is hydrogen.
But the problem is that the speed when scramjet is begin operationally is about Mach 6. There is the possibility that the scramjet engine is equipped with a flap. And at the beginning of the hypersonic mission, the scramjet is used as a rocket engine.
The system will pump fuel and oxygen in the engine until the speed of the system rises high enough that the air inlet can open and the scramjet can start to take air from the atmosphere. Another version is that the aircraft uses three types of engines during the acceleration process.
Image II
Lifting off happens by using regular turbojets. And when the speed of the aircraft has risen to Mach 1 the ramjet will start. When ramjet is accelerating the speed of the aircraft to the level of Mach 6 the scramjet will start.
If the spacecraft uses a scramjet engine it can accelerate its speed at the atmosphere and then it can rise to the suborbital trajectory or ballistic jump. During that maneuver, the scramjet-driven aircraft can release the cargo like Pegasus rocket or small space shuttle. In missile technology. The intercontinental missile can shoot the scramjet-driven hypersonic missile to the ballistic trajectory. And when the missile is falling back to the atmosphere the scramjet will activate. But the hypersonic missiles are only one part of the hypersonic systems.
The scramjet engine uses oxygen that it takes from air. That makes the system lighter than the use of a regular rocket engine. And there are visions that jet-aircraft will equip with scramjet engines which are used as super afterburners. The aircraft could use hypersonic mode for flying across oceans. And then on the other side, it can turn to flight like normal aircraft. Because the oxygen tanks are smaller there is a larger cargo bay.
Image II: https://defense-update.com/20201007_tsirkon.html/turbojet-ramjet-scramjet
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