Scram jet engine design

A scram jet engine comprising:

• an upper boundary wall, a lower boundary wall, and a plurality of side walls defining an inner air flowpath;
• said upper boundary wall, lower boundary wall, and side walls being formed by a plurality of tubular heat exchanger panels;
• each said heat exchanger panel comprising a plurality of structural panels joined together;
• each said structural panel having a plurality of cooling passages;
• said heat exchanger panels being welded together to form an inlet region, a compression region, a pilot region, a combustion region, and a nozzle region;
• and
• said combustion region and said nozzle region have having contours which approximate parabolic curves.

A heat exchanger panel for use in a scram jet engine comprising:

• a plurality of structural panels, each having a plurality of coolant passages machined therein and a separate inlet manifold and a separate outlet manifold communicating with said coolant passages;
• each said structural panel having said coolant passages being separated by a plurality of lands which form an inner surface, and a planar outer surface;
• a face sheet welded to said plurality of lands and a structural stiffener formed from sheet metal positioned adjacent to and joined to said outer surface;
• and
• said structural panels being arranged to form a tubular structure which defines an inner air flowpath for said scram jet engine and said panels being joined together.

A hypersonic vehicle having a scram jet engine for propulsion, said scram jet engine comprising:

• an inlet region, a compression region, a pilot region, a combustion region, and a nozzle region;
• said regions being formed by a plurality of tubular heat exchanger panels;
• each said tubular heat exchanger panel being formed by a plurality of joined together structural panels;
• each said structural panel having a plurality of cooling passages for receiving fuel and using said fuel to cool air flowing through said regions;
• each said structural panel having said cooling passages separated by a plurality of lands which form an inner surface and communicating with a separate inlet manifold and a separate outlet manifold, and having a planar surface;
• a face sheet welded to said plurality of lands;
• and
• a structural stiffener formed from sheet metal positioned adjacent to and joined to said outer surface of each said structural panel.