Air Breathing Propulsion System

About Air Breathing Propulsion System:

• In this system the rocket will carry its fuel, but will not carry an on-board oxidiser.
• Instead, this system will utilize atmospheric oxygen as an oxidiser to burn the fuel. This makes rockets significantly lighter and more efficient.
• However, such air-breathing technologies can be used only within the denser layers of the Earth's atmosphere, where there is an adequate supply of oxygen.
• Such technologies might be feasible in the denser layers of Earth's atmosphere (up to 70 kilometres altitude), and thereafter the rocket must switch to another stage that has both fuel and an on-board oxidizer.
• Types of air-breathing propulsion
  • Ramjet: It is an air breathing propulsion engine operating on the principle of supersonic combustion. It has the absence of any rotator and relies solely on the forward motion of the engine to compress incoming air.
  • Scramjet: It is an upgraded version of the Ramjet and generates thrust through supersonic air flow and combustion. It moves at hypersonic speed and performs best at high speeds, greater than Mach 5.
  • In 2023, India became the fourth countryto successfully demonstrate the flight testing of a Scramjet Engine.
  • Dual-Mode Ramjet (DMRJ): It is a jet engine where a ramjet transforms into a scramjet over Mach 4-8 range and it can efficiently operate both in subsonic and supersonic combustor modes.