Originally Posted by
pooch817
I did about 8 years of Test work but it was pretty bland stuff. Most of my flying was airline. The people at Lockheed's Skunk works developed the SR 71. The Spike produces 80 % of the thrust. I wonder if these new high by pass engines could take a plane higher and faster. Is high speed subspace travel possible with air breathing engines.
Isn't the limiting factor subsonic vs supersonic flow through the engine? Wasn't that the point of the complex inlet system, to keep subsonic flow? At some point, it has to be supersonic to go faster, which gets you into scramjet territory in terms of keeping the fuel lit.