''RAM JET ENGINES mounted on the wing tips of U.S. Air Force F-80 Shooting Star spurts flames on a test flight for the "flying stovepipes" began nearly a year ago. These 20-inch diameter tubes contain a grid where gasoline is burned with ram air compressed by the airplane's high speed. Ram jets are subsonic thermal jet propulsion units which are being tested as future power plants for aircraft. At present, they are used only in conjunction with regular turbo-jet engines mounted in the airplanes fuselage. The Shooting Star is flown on the power of its Allison engine before the ram jets are ignited. At times, however, this has been turned off and the airplane has been flown by ram jet alone, making the F-80 the first man-carrying aircraft to accomplish this. The ram jets are manufactured by the Marquardt Aviation Co of Venice, California.''
''December 1947, Herman Salmon flew P-80A, 44-85214, with a Marquardt C-30 ramjet on each wingtip, using only the ramjets for power.''
''...Although ramjet engines will operate at subsonic speeds, subsonic ramjets are notoriously inefficient in that they use a lot of fuel for the thrust they produce. Typically jet engines become more efficient as the compression ratio is increased. Since ramjets rely on converting forward speed into pressure their compression ratios are very low subsonically...''
The 1949 F-80 ramjet
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