TERMIUM Plus^®

Record 1,  Textual support,  English

Record number: 1, Textual support number: 1 CONT

A ram accelerator is a gun that utilizes ramjet compression to accelerate a projectile to extremely high speeds. In a normal ramjet, air is compressed for combustion between a spike-shaped ram and an outer casing. In a ram accelerator, a similar shaped ram is fired (often from a conventional gun) into the accelerator barrel, causing compression between the projectile and the barrel's walls. The barrel contains a fuel-air mixture. As the ram compresses the mixture, it is ignited behind it. In a typical ram accelerator design, thin membranes designed to be easily punctured by the ram wall off sections of the barrel. Each section is filled with a different fuel-air mixture chosen so that later sections have higher speeds of sound. As such, the ram can be maintained at optimal speeds of mach 3–5 (relative to the mixture that it travels through) during its entire acceleration period.  2, record 1, English, - ram%20accelerator

Record 1,  Textual support,  French

Record 1,  Textual support,  Spanish