Ramjet missile propulsion - the biggest invention since the introduction of the jet engine

When the jet engine was invented in the 1040s, it changed aviation forever: Aircraft could fly faster, higher and have more maneuverability. Now ramjet motors have the potential to create an equally fundamental change for rocket motors. Air to air missiles could reach as far as 500km. After more than 150 successful motor tests, the initial developmental test phase is over. Nammo now plans to move to ballistic firing tests.

[stevoplex]

As a defense contractor for the US Air Force, I had a colleague that had worked on the Bomarc, a supersonic ramjet missile deployed in the late 1950s. It had a range of 700km, with a top speed of Mach 2.5.

[bruceferry]

A ramjet missiles was used by the U.S. Navy starting in the late 50's . It was called Talos.

[moreinzenjering]

The ramjet was conceived in 1913 by French inventor René Lorin, who was granted a patent for his device
In 1915, Hungarian inventor Albert Fonó devised a solution for increasing the range of artillery, comprising a gun-launched projectile which was to be united with a ramjet propulsion unit
In the Soviet Union, a theory of supersonic ramjet engines was presented in 1928 by Boris Stechkin. Yuri Pobedonostsev, chief of GIRD's 3rd Brigade, carried out a great deal of research into ramjet engines. The first engine, the GIRD-04, was designed by I.A. Merkulov and tested in April 1933
and so on

[emilchouster]

As far as I remember RIM-8 Talos used ramjet in 1958.

[oompalumpus]

Mr. Moller seems like an adorable old man. Love his demure way of explaining things.

[humanbeing]

A Ramjet is nothing new..but in this package it could be a gamechanger. Lets see.

[jeffkavanaugh]

A number of Surface to Air Missiles used Ramjet Propulsion example: RIM-8 TALOS (1958), CIM-10 BOMARC (1959), and UK's Bloodhound (1959). So using ramjets in missiles is not new. In this case the uses a solid fuel ramjet to greatly increase range by providing positive thrust, instead of base-bleed merely cutting the drag...

[RiftVaulter]

Love Nammo, one of the truly innovative and genuine companies I love!

[sideshowbob]

Bristol Bloodhound surface to air missile entered service with the RAF in 1958 and continued in service until the 1990's. It used rocket boosters to get the missile up to speed then the ramjets took over. I worked on the launchers as an apprentice in Bristol.

[LeonardoRodriguez-ipmx]

Simple terms. SR 71 engine on a rocket

[vtkrey]

The Soviets, Americans and a bunch of others had working ramjets decades ago, it shouldn't be presented as new technology.

[jimhenry]

I think these guys are friggen brilliant.
I cannot wait to meet them to assist me with a new project I have coming up in a few years!!

[othermichigansaturn]

This comment thread is sharing a fascinating body of knowledge. Cheers!

[nathanokun]

The FIRST and largest US Navy ship-fired AA missile introduced around 1960, the TALOS, was ramjet-powered and, until better rocket fuels were introduced for higher speeds and uplink-controlled missile guidance allowed optimum high-altitude mid-trajectory flight (SM-2 and after, including Aegis), TALOS was the longest-range AA missile the US Navy had, thougn not the fastest and very bulky, so it needed very large ships and this finally caused it to be decommissioned.

[manjunathswamy]

Careful Chinese may have already bugged your systems to copy the technology.

[manuelteixeira]

Nice, very impressive missil engine! Great job . Wel done. Keep this thecnic away from stealing guys, please. This must stay as higly classified.

[HeadPack]

The question remains how these rockets reach mach-3 speeds, in order for the ramjet to work. If a rocket motor is used in addition, the system will get more complex, and some of the improved fuel efficiency will be negated. If these are launched from aircraft or drones, and no rocket motor shall be used, these aircraft will have to fly much faster than current gen fighters.

This guy's accent is freaking awesome. He's like a cartoon teddy bear.

[gruisman]

actually so simple with no new technologies and no one tought about doing this before awesome hahaha

[andrewwmacfadyen]

The UK produced two ram jet boosted AGM missiles in the late 1950's the Thunderbird and the longer range Bloodhound. The Bloodhound particularly the MK2 version was highly regarded and only phased out of Swedish service in the early. 2000's