https://www.sandboxx.us/news/ges-hy...akthrough-could-change-aviation-forever/sample quote
When the air and fuel are mixed in a Pulse Detonation Engine, they’re ignited, creating deflagration like in any other combustion engine, but within the longer exhaust tube leading out of the engine, a powerful pressure wave compresses any unburnt fuel ahead of the ignition, heating it above ignition temperature in what is known as the deflagration-to-detonation transition (DDT). In other words, rather than burning through the fuel rapidly, the engine explodes it, producing more thrust from the same amount of fuel.
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Today, we’re aware of at least three American-based efforts to develop and field such an engine. Hermeus’s Chimera is a turbojet/ramjet design, though the firm has plans to field a larger and more capable turbofan/ramjet soon. Leidos has been more tight-lipped about their efforts tied to the Air Force Research Lab’s Mayhem program, though it’s understood the effort aims to field a more advanced turbofan/scramjet system.
And then of course, Lockheed Martin claimed to have success with their own turbofan/dual-mode scramjet engine, designed in coordination with Aerojet Rocketdyne, back in 2017. Interestingly enough, this design was said to be experimenting with both Pratt & Whitney F100 and GE F110 turbofans as its turbine basis, though progress on this effort has since been shrouded in secrecy since the program went dark at the onset of the modern hypersonic arms race.
GE Aerospace has admittedly not been among the big-name firms in the race to field hypersonic aircraft to date, but their ability to incorporate far more efficient rotating detonation combustion into these engine designs could allow them to not only catch up, but rapidly take the lead in this field.
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