UK US Hypersonics

Interesting section in British Secret Projects: Hypersonics, Ramjets and Missiles

In his unpublished memoir on ramjet development at Bristol Aero Engines and BSEL, John Lane describes a series of papers he wrote with Robin Jamieson on air-breathing high-speed propulsion systems. Lane makes a very interesting statement: “The papers caused quite a stir when they came out and were ahead of the field. The work was trotted around the US by the author for Rolls Royce in the 1980’s. The author found that the US had not recorded their own work and had forgotten most of it.’

By 1985 the US had embarked on the Copper Canyon hypersonic studies and the National Aerospace Plane and by 1989 rumours were rife of a hypersonic aircraft operating in the western US. Perhaps like the cavity magnetron, the atomic bomb and that unsung hero of WW2, the strain gauge, Britain’s high-speed propulsion research went across the Atlantic, to live on and even reach the hardware stage.