Liquid-kerosene ramjet platform

Crossbow

FAST's proprietary ground-tested platform for advancing combustion, thermal management, and air-breathing propulsion for sustained high-speed flight.

Explore the platform
Experimental record 70+ Ground tests
Simulated inlet speed Mach 5 High-speed condition
Simulated altitude 25–28 km Flight-equivalent range
Fuel Jet-A1 Liquid kerosene
The platform

Ground data before flight risk.

Crossbow is FAST's reconfigurable ramjet development platform. It can be instrumented, modified, and tested repeatedly as combustion, injection, thermal-management, and propulsion-integration solutions evolve.

Campaigns at DLR Lampoldshausen turn each experimental result into the next hardware iteration before technology is transferred to flight.

Crossbow test configuration and instrumentation definition in the engineering environment
DefineCampaign objectives, configuration, instrumentation, and test conditions.
Why this technology

Why ramjet.

Ramjet propulsion enables sustained high-speed atmospheric flight through an air-breathing, mechanically simple architecture powered by conventional liquid kerosene.

01

Sustained

Thrust throughout the supersonic or hypersonic mission phase.

02

Air-breathing

Atmospheric oxygen reduces the oxidizer carried during operation.

03

Jet-A1

Energy-dense fuel supported by established aerospace logistics.

Applicable missions Ramjet-enabled mission classes
  • 01Flight research
  • 02High-speed uncrewed platforms
  • 03Advanced interceptors
  • 04Ultra-fast point-to-point aircraft
  • 05Responsive air-launch
Crossbow experimental hardware installed for a test campaign
Testing with FAST

One platform. Different campaigns.

Crossbow is available for selected industrial, institutional, and research programs. FAST can support campaign definition, hardware adaptation, test execution, and data review.

Preliminary campaign request

Tell us what you need to test.

Send a concise, non-confidential outline. FAST will assess platform compatibility and contact you.

Detailed technical information can be exchanged later under an appropriate agreement.

Submission starts a preliminary assessment and does not constitute campaign acceptance or a binding offer.