liotier

OK, it’s clever but almost all the ramjets from the beginning used this technique, starting from the Leduc 022 in 1956. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leduc_0.22

Yes and no.

On the one hand, the P&W J58 (1958) is a direct descendant of the XF-103’s engine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_XF-103#Propulsion - though the XF103 never went pas the mock-up stage (mock-up built in 1953, cancelled in 1957). The turbo/statoreactor combination may also have got some inspiration from the Matra R-130 (1947) - a project that stopped at the design stage because it was too complicated for its time, but showed fantastically advanced features. All that is indeed very similar to the the Leduc 0.22’s engine and the one aboard the Nord Griffon. Here is a nice picture of the inside of the Le Bourget’s 0.22’s engine from the rear, showing the little turboreactor inside the huge statoreator pipe: http://www.enginehistory.org/Museums/LeBourget/Leduc%20022.jpg

On the other hand there are significant design difference : the huge retracting shock cone that masks the compressor to let the air flow almost entirely bypass the turboreactor at high speeds, and most importantly the various bypass valves. In the the Leduc and Griffon the turboreactors were throttled back, but there was still significant airflow going through them, which makes them unsuitable for Mach 3+ speeds. As the technical director of Nord Aviation himself acknowledges (http://www.flightglobal.com/FlightPDFArchive/1959/1959%20-%200777.PDF), the bypass system is heavier and more cumbersome but it enables higher Mach numbers than what the Griffon’s engine allows.

Those were crazy times in aviation...

The Matra R-130 does not have a Wikipedia page... I’m putting that on my TODO list !