Hypersonic airbreathing propulsion, in particular, scramjets (supersonic combustion ramjets), is a promising technology that offers great potential for efficient and economical access-to-space and atmospheric transport. Reliable in-flight inlet starting is of critical importance for the successful operation of scramjet engines, particularly internal-compression configurations with high-contraction inlets. A wide variety of methods including diaphragm rupture and sliding doors (diaphragm erosion) have been contrived in order to address the inlet starting issue, which is inherent to hypersonic airbreathing systems with internal compression. This paper discusses the mechanism and causes of inlet unstart from aerodynamic viewpoints and assesses the effectiveness and viability of various starting methods, based on steady and transient simulations by means of high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics
