Performance of a bicone inlet designed for Mach 2.5 with internal distributed compression and 40 percent internal contraction

The inlet was designed to have the minimum internal contraction consistent with high total-pressure recovery and low cowl drag. Without a bypass system, the peak pressure recoveries increased from 0.890 to 0.936 when the supercritical bleed mass flow ratio was varied from 0.035 to 0.060. With an operating bypass system and installed centerbody vortex generators, a slight increase in peak pressure recovery was obtained. The values of steady-state distortion and dynamic distortion were below 0.10 and 0.02, respectively, near critical operation. Simulation of a turbofan engine with concentric pipes showed no effect on compressor face flow profiles with varying bypass flow ratio.