Abstract: A method and system are provided to weaken shock wave strength at leading edge surfaces of a vehicle in atmospheric flight. One or more flight-related attribute sensed along a vehicle's outer mold line are used to control the injection of a non-heated, non-plasma-producing gas into a local external flowfield of the vehicle from at least one leading-edge surface location along the vehicle's outer mold line. Pressure and/or mass flow rate of the gas so-injected is adjusted in order to cause a Rankine-Hugoniot Jump Condition along the vehicle's outer mold line to be violated.

Abstract: This invention provides an apparatus and a method which utilizes magnetohydrodynamic means for conditioning flow in a gas flow turbine or turbojet and for achieving power extraction to increase relative velocity. Moreover, the power, which is so extracted, can be recycled back into the system in order to further increase the power output and efficiency of the engine. The invention achieves the flow conditioning through use of an inlet annular flow passage. This assembly is placed upstream of the gas turbine inlet and has one or more superconducting magnets, which create a high magnetic field operative across the flow passage. Preferably, the magnetic field is a radial field. The walls of the passage include slots, which accommodate electron beams directed in a spiral path within the magnetic field to form locally ionized regions in the form of a helix within the annular flow path.

Abstract: A turbojet engine is made from a drum-like portion having a circular blade section extending inwardly therefrom, a support member, and a bearing arranged around a circle having a diameter substantially equal to or greater than the diameter of the blade section. The drum-like portion is rotatably mounted within the support member on the bearing. Instead of a turbine spinning on a shaft, a turbine spinning within a drum is employed.