Definition of "scramjet" []

• A ramjet airplane engine designed for hypersonic flight that burns fuel in the supersonic airstream produced by the plane. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Recent breakthroughs in scramjet engines could mean two-hour flights from New York to Tokyo."
• "Dryden Flight Research Center NASA's high-risk, high-payoff Hyper-X Program is ready to attempt its greatest challenge yet - flying a "scramjet" - powered X-43A research vehicle at nearly 10 times the speed of sound."
• "There's no reason to think that a scramjet will be any cheaper than a rocket, and abundant reason to think otherwise."