: a jet engine that consists essentially of a hollow tube without mechanical components and depends on the aircraft's speed of flight to compress the air which is supplied to a burner from which hot gases are discharged rearward
Examples of ramjet in a Sentence
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Interstellar ramjets face challenges such as the sparse density of the interstellar medium and immense energy and fusion requirements.
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Victoria Corless, Space.com, 22 Jan. 2025
Those advantages also have a downside: ramjets are entirely ineffective at low speeds and are often accompanied by turbojets to handle subsonic flight, where the airspeed isn't enough to feed air-hungry ramjet engines.
—New Atlas, 20 Dec. 2024
In 1958, the scramjet, or supersonic combustion ramjet, was conceptualized – which would ignite fuel in a combustion chamber while air flowed through continuously at supersonic speeds, eliminating the ramjet's draggy need to slow that airflow down below the speed of sound.
—New Atlas, 4 Dec. 2024
Development of Kub’s then-advanced guidance and revolutionary booster-less solid-fuel ramjet engines took nine years to complete.
—Sébastien Roblin, Popular Mechanics, 30 Aug. 2023
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Victoria Corless, Space.com, 22 Jan. 2025
Those advantages also have a downside: ramjets are entirely ineffective at low speeds and are often accompanied by turbojets to handle subsonic flight, where the airspeed isn't enough to feed air-hungry ramjet engines.
—New Atlas, 20 Dec. 2024
In 1958, the scramjet, or supersonic combustion ramjet, was conceptualized – which would ignite fuel in a combustion chamber while air flowed through continuously at supersonic speeds, eliminating the ramjet's draggy need to slow that airflow down below the speed of sound.
—New Atlas, 4 Dec. 2024
Development of Kub’s then-advanced guidance and revolutionary booster-less solid-fuel ramjet engines took nine years to complete.
—Sébastien Roblin, Popular Mechanics, 30 Aug. 2023
See All Example Sentences for ramjet
Cite this Entry
“Ramjet.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ramjet. Accessed 12 Mar. 2025.
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ramjet
noun
ram·jet
ˌram-ˌjet 
: a jet engine that depends on the speed of flight for the compression of the air it takes in rather than using a mechanical compressor
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