Unified Continuous Propulsion from Rest to Hypersonic Flight

The unification of propulsion across the full Mach 0 to Mach 12 envelope within a single engine architecture has remained an open problem in aerospace engineering for over seven decades. Existing combined-cycle approaches (TBCC, RBCC) rely on discrete mode- switching between specialized propulsion units, incurring thrust losses of 10 to 25 percent during transition windows and imposing substantial structural and operational penalties. This paper presents a conceptual framework for unified continuous propulsion based on two integrated principles: (i) continuous transition of oxidizer source from catalytically- decomposed hydrogen peroxide to atmospheric air, governed by a smooth monotonic function of Mach number, and (ii) oblate ellipsoidal combustion chamber geometry that distributes membrane stress quasi-uniformly while accommodating radial catalytic gradient distribution. The synergistic integration of these two principles is shown qualitatively to enable continuous operation from static thrust through hypersonic regimes without mode- switching, with reduced structural mass and improved thermal management compared to cylindrical alternatives.