Highly Compact Supersonic Cruise Missile (SSCM) Engine Inlet

As air vehicle speeds increase, air breathing engine and inlet technology follow through concurrent supersonic performance requirements. The recent ability to build smaller supersonic engines has established a void in small air vehicle inlet capability. A solution to decrease the overall footprint of supersonic inlets within the Next Generation TOMAHAWK (NGT)/Supersonic Cruise Missiles (SSCM) is desired. Conventional inlet design is limited to classical shapes for the supersonic portion of the inlet due to the use of semi-empirical codes that are restricted to this limited set of possible shapes; and, are limited to lofting the subsonic diffuser downstream of the terminal shock to meet the required average Mach number at the compressor face. CRAFT Tech will utilize a novel Inlet Design Optimization Environment to conduct the design and development of a compact high-speed inlet for the NGT/SSCM. CRAFT Tech will prepare a detailed plan for wind-tunnel testing of the design, with the specific purpose of verifying the inlet design and design of the test hardware will also be performed. This comprehensive planning will also include identification of an appropriate test facility, interfacing of the model scale inlet with the test facility, definition of a suitable test matrix and associated testing protocols.