Aerospace propulsion

This four-part dossier on aerospace propulsion provides an increasingly detailed introduction to propulsion systems for aircraft, rockets and missiles.

This article is therefore a reminder of the essential concepts of flight (speeds, standard atmosphere, etc.), the aerodynamic and thermodynamic formulas used in propulsion at the preliminary design stage, and the different levels of air and combustion modeling.

The main definitions are discussed: constructive index, dilution ratio, specific impulse.

In this presentation, particular attention is paid to the link with the design of the flying vehicle whose propulsion is to be studied, and to the orders of magnitude of the parameters associated with a given level of technology.

The examples and data provided are taken from the open literature, sometimes deliberately left in English, as the applications of these engines inevitably lead to restrictions on certain particular points of these propulsion systems from a commercial or military point of view.