posted on Feb, 12 2009 @ 04:22 PM
I don't think the AJAX concept was all that great to begin with. Some of the technologies involved may have been promising and some only appeared
promising at the time. For example, the idea of upstream energy deposition to modify the shock waves around the vehicle and reduce drag appears to be
theoretically solid, but the Inverse Brayton Cycle engine concept using MHD to divert energy around the burner is a non-starter from a basic
thermodynamic perspective. Oh sure, it seemed like a good idea at the time, but after thorough analysis and experimentation it just didn't pan out.
I'm sure I've posted about this in the past but I'm too lazy to dig it up.
If someone has a secret operational hypersonic aircraft, it may use some neat tricks manipulating plasmas and electromagnetics, but in its core it is
not AJAX and I don't think it would even be based on AJAX. At best AJAX provoked some thought and further research that led to huge breakthroughs,
but I think more realistically it was a promising idea that fizzled out.