Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne.

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne says it has successfully demonstrated sub-scale combustor operation for a hydrocarbon-fueled, dual-mode ramjet engine designed to operate over a wide range of Mach numbers. A dual-mode ramjet transitions between subsonic and supersonic modes of operation, allowing use of the same engine for supersonic and hypersonic flight. 'Development testing, which began in November 2006, was conducted at the United Technologies Research Center, East Hartford. Conn. The combustor achieved desired operability and performance required for operation from Mach 2.5 to Mach 6.0. The engine technology is being developed under contract with Lockheed Martin for the Falcon Combined-Cycle Engine Technology (FaCET) programme. The Falcon initiative is a Joint Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and US Air Force programme to develop and demonstrate hypersonic technologies to enable prompt global reach missions.