Abstract: In a valve control unit for a ram jet propulsion system having a power unit space a valve for controlling a fuel quantity required to the propulsion system, and a valve adjusting unit which is constructed to be operable by means of an electronic control unit, the valve is combined with its valve adjusting unit and its electronic control unit to form a thermally insulated valve assembly. The valve assembly is configured for the arrangement in the power unit space.

Abstract: A ram jet rocket includes a precombustion chamber having a solid fuel propellant which burns off so that the gases generated are deficient in oxygen when they pass through a central aperture of a valve body into a main combustion chamber in which they are further burned. The valve body aperture is closed by a bore control member which is urged into a proper setting position by a push rod mounted behind the ball downstream of the aperture. The valve body defines an annular nozzle extending from the aperture downstream through one or more elbow passages into a corresponding number of axially extending passages into the main combustion chamber. The valve construction is characterized by at least one by-pass passage which extends from the upstream end of the valve body into the elbow passage which leads to the axial passage.

Abstract: A gun-launched ramjet projectile follows a classical vacuum ballistic trajectory by maintaining a thrust-drag balance. The thrust of the ramjet is varied by an air door which bleeds air from the duct that leads from the supersonic diffuser at the front of the projectile to the combustion chamber. The control system for the air door includes an actuator and a pair of accelerometers, the output of which is integrated to provide an indication of velocity. The first accelerometer operates during the launching of the projectile in the gun to measure the launch velocity. A second, and more sensitive, accelerometer measures in-flight velocity changes due to atmospheric conditions. Both of the measured velocities are compared with prerecorded standards and error signals are derived representing any velocity deviations. These error signals are combined and then used to drive the air doors which varies the thrust of the ramjet so that it follows the classical vacuum ballistic trajectory.

Abstract: A ramjet engine for aircraft incorporating means for automatically changing from a subsonic combustion ramjet geometry to a supersonic combustion ramjet geometry. This is accomplished by utilizing solid fuel for the ramjet during the subsonic combustion mode and tailoring the solid fuel such that, as it burns away, the remaining internal engine geometry changes to the internal engine geometry for supersonic combustion. At the desired time, liquid fuel can be injected into the combustion chamber and the ramjet will operate eventually on liquid fuel only as a supersonic combustion ramjet.