Inlets for hypersonic air-breathing vehicles and design methods and systems therefor

A computer-implemented method of generating a design of an inlet for a hypersonic air breathing vehicle using a processor system comprising a plurality of CPUs, the method comprising:

• solving in parallel on a plurality of free CPUs in the processor system for unique Busemann contour solutions from Taylor-Maccoll equations for conical flow in each of a plurality of osculating planes over an azimuthal sweep of a hypothetical inlet shape by changing boundary conditions;
• and
• generating streamtraces of the inlet, the streamtraces comprising a streamtrace of the inlet from the unique Busemann contour solution in each osculating plane, the streamtraces collectively defining a shape of the inlet;
• and
• generating the design of the inlet to have the shape defined by the streamtraces.