Design of Modular Shape-Transition Inlets for a Conical Hypersonic Vehicle

For a hypersonic vehicle, propelled by scramjet engines, integration of the engines and airframe is critical for generation of positive net thrust. To design inlets that integrate well with planar vehicle bodies, a method was developed by Smart to produce rectangular-to-elliptical shape transition inlets. However, these inlets lose their advantage of tight integration when used on nonplanar bodies such as a conical vehicle. In this paper, that design technique is generalized to produce inlets that integrate with arbitrary body shapes. As an example, the design of a body-integrated hypersonic inlet on a winged-cone vehicle is shown, typical of what might be used in a three-stage orbital launch system.