Faster and more efficient flights with ramjet rotor engine

A new engine that fires successive explosions between high-speed rotor blades has been heralded as a revolutionary advance in hypersonic propulsion technology. This engine can dramatically increase the power and efficiency of hypersonic flight, provided it can withstand the enormous thrust it generates.

According to Tekna Technology News media engineering service, the history of high-speed propulsion systems goes back many years. From Leonardo da Vinci’s failed wings to jet and turbojet engines in the 1930s and 1940s, which revolutionized the aviation industry. In 1939, the first jet aircraft, the Heinkel He 178, took to the skies using its exhaust gases to generate propulsion. In the 1950s, turbofan and ramjet engines were developed, which led to further improvements in the design of faster and more efficient aircraft.

In 1958, the scramjet engine, or “supersonic combustion engine”, was introduced, which uses supersonic fuel and airflow instead of slowing down the airflow in ramjet engines. This design was successfully tested by NASA in 2001, and the X-43A flew at a hypersonic speed of Mach 6.8 (5,217 mph or 8,396 km/h).

In 2020, rotary explosion engines (RDE) were introduced, which use the energy of actual explosions instead of conventional combustion to generate propulsion power. These engines direct the energy from the explosion of fuel molecules in a rotating channel, and this process increases the efficiency of the engine. However, these engines require higher pressures and supersonic speeds to operate effectively.

But in 2024, Dr. Hucheng and Professor Bing Wang from Tsinghua University in China introduced a new concept called Ram Rotor Detonation Engine (RRDE). This engine is a type of rotary explosion engine where the explosion wave is stabilized inside a high-speed rotor. In this design, a precise flow channel inside the rotor compresses the air-fuel mixture to provide the right conditions for detonation. This process causes the production of propulsive force using a continuous and rotating blast wave in the rotor.

The advantage of this technology is the use of a rotating explosion wave with supersonic speed, which has a higher efficiency than traditional combustion methods. The RAM rotor implosion engine is capable of reaching hypersonic speeds above Mach 5 (3,836 mph or 6,174 km/h) while exploiting high detonation pressures and temperatures. This engine is also able to provide suitable detonation conditions at slower speeds than conventional RDE engines.

Although this technology is still in the experimental and simulation stages, the initial results show that the ram rotor explosion engine could bring about a big revolution in the hypersonic propulsion industry. Despite challenges such as the energy required to start the rotor and maintain the blast wave in the high-speed rotor, recent advances in hypersonic research, particularly in China, indicate that this technology will soon find operational use.