Abstract
The air-breathing rocket engine exploits the availability of atmospheric air as an oxidizer to enhance the overall efficiency of the engine’s performance over the course of a flight mission. The early basis for this rocket propulsion approach is the ramjet engine, which is discussed in some detail in this chapter. The successor to the ramjet in the higher speed flight regime, the supersonic-combustion scramjet, is also of some importance in the development of effective rocket-based combined-cycle engines. A number of different air-breathing rocket approaches are presented in this chapter, with the given approach largely contingent on the needed performance for the given mission.
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© 2012 Springer-Verlag London Limited
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Greatrix, D.R. (2012). Air-Breathing Rocket Engines. In: Powered Flight. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2485-6_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2485-6_13
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