PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Pitot-style engine intake above Mach 1
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Old 9th Jun 2014, 17:32
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pattern_is_full
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
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Concorde used a similar intake to the F-14 as described by Mozella.

It is an interesting side question that the inlets for both planes are boxy and rectangular. I don't know if this was simply to accomodate simpler flat inlet ramps and vents, or if there is some aerodynamic advantage at supersonic speeds to having rectangular knife-edge nacelles/inlets.

The XB-70 also had a box inlet - but with a splitter knife-edge extending forward between the intakes. This configuration produced compression lift, where the shock-compressed air pushed up on the wing from below - essentially, a bit of "ground effect" you could carry along with you.

A lot of early Mach+ planes (Mig-21, Electric Lightning, SR-71) had central inlet cones or spikes, in a round inlet, to slow intake air to subsonic speed - often movable fore and aft, to adjust for the shape of the shock wave at different speeds, and change the volume of the inlet. Some planes (Mirage III) with engines in the fuselage used semicircular side inlets with "half cones."

A recent development is the "diverterless inlet" for fuselage inlets, which uses a forward-swept inlet edge, in combination with a fuselage "bump" inside the inlet (analogous to the Mirage half-cone) to control the shock waves and intake air speed.

http://aviationintel.com/wp-content/...18110258_3.jpg

The F-35 uses this approach, as do several recent Chinese fighters.
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