Power Units for Very High Speed Winged Vehicles

THE term ‘Winged Vehicles’ is used here to describe various forms of aircraft, either manned or unmanned which fly through the atmosphere and have wings to provide lift. The lift of the wings may be used to sustain the weight of the aircraft and also to provide lateral forces required to manoeuvre it. It is flight within the atmosphere with which we are concerned here. In this setting we are looking at the problems of the propulsion of aircraft at high speeds. Manned aircraft are operating now at speeds up to Mach 3 and winged missiles at higher speeds, so for our present purpose we are concerned with propulsion in the atmosphere at speeds above Mach 3, about 1,700 knots.