Slashdot Mirror
Scramjet Success in Australia
glengyron writes "Australia's ABC reports today that a University of Queensland team have successfully tested a supersonic scramjet (air-breathing supersonic combustion ramjet engine). Read more here or here. Great to see after previous problems. Does the future of air travel still include those breakfast egg-roll things?"
Lessee, gag, dildo, handcuffs, spread cheeks... it's the perfect woman!
Unfortunately, the diagram is not totally correct. It's possible to have scramjets with duct convergences, and ramjets without duct convergences. The difference lies in the fact that in a ramjet the air becomes subsonic, and in a scramjet the air does not become subsonic.
Making the air subsonic provides a great deal of control over the combustion process, thus the problem with scramjets.
Mainly because last time, the rocket veered off course and crashed into the ground before the test could be conducted. This time, the rocked stayed on path, they received telemetry from the package, and nothing spectacular went wrong. It is still very possible for something non-spectacular to go wrong, and clearly they're avoiding talking before thinking (an increasingly rare occurrence).