What is scramjet technology?
- Scramjet is short for Supersonic Combusting Ramjet
- Scramjet is a supersonic combustion engine.
- Rockets usually carry both fuel and oxidiser for easy combustion. Scramjet engine uses the oxygen from atmosphere to compress fuel, thus reducing the weight of rocket and increasing the efficiency
- The scramjet engine is used only during the atmospheric phase of the rocket’s flight
- It is an air-breathing propulsion
- The scramjet engine can also liquefy the oxygen and store it on board
- This is helpful for flying at hypersonic speed – Mach 5 and above.
- These engines have no moving parts. Instead of the rotating compressor and turbine in a jet engine, air is compressed and expanded by complex systems of shockwaves under the front of the aircraft, inside the inlet and under the fuselage at the rear
- Why in news?
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- ISRO successfully conducted scramjet engine test for the first time