en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotating_detonation_engine
2 corrections found
They believe the engine with no moving parts can increase efficiency and cost due to the lower complexity, allowing for more mass to be budgeted in other subsystems, like fuel and payloads.
RTX describes Pratt & Whitney’s rotating detonation engine as cost-effective and lower-cost to produce, not as something that increases cost.
Full reasoning
This sentence appears to reverse the cost claim.
RTX’s March 4, 2025 press release says the engine’s no-moving-parts design yields “a small, compact and cost-effective engine,” not higher cost. In a separate RTX feature published the same day, the company likewise says the simple design “requires few parts and promises cost-effective production.”
So the article’s wording that lower complexity can “increase ... cost” is contradicted by the company’s own description of the technology: the expected benefit is higher efficiency with lower cost / more cost-effective production, which is why it could free up mass for fuel, sensors, and payload.
2 sources
- RTX's Pratt & Whitney completes series of rotating detonation engine testing
Rotating detonation engines ... require no moving parts. The result is high thermal efficiency and performance, which allows for a small, compact and cost-effective engine.
- More power, no moving parts: the quest to fly a rotating detonation engine
The simple design requires few parts and promises cost-effective production.
The RDE is to initially accelerate the missile to supersonic speeds, at which point it will reconfigure to act as a ramjet, then reconfiguring to a scramjet to reach hypersonic speeds.
The announced GE/Lockheed system is a rotating detonation ramjet, not an engine that first acts as an RDE and then reconfigures into separate ramjet and scramjet modes.
Full reasoning
This sentence conflates different concepts.
In the January 14, 2026 joint release, GE Aerospace and Lockheed Martin say they demonstrated a liquid-fueled rotating detonation ramjet for hypersonic missiles. They describe it as a ramjet that uses rotating-detonation combustion, and say that its lower-speed ignition means smaller boosters can be used for ramjet start. That directly contradicts the claim that the RDE itself will initially accelerate the missile to supersonic speed before changing into a ramjet and then a scramjet.
GE’s December 14, 2023 release also describes its related high-speed work as a dual-mode ramjet (DMRJ) with rotating detonation combustion (RDC). In other words, rotating detonation is the combustion approach inside the air-breathing engine; it is not described as a separate first propulsion mode that later “reconfigures” into ramjet and scramjet operation.
So the article sentence misstates the architecture: the public GE/Lockheed announcement is about a rotating-detonation ramjet, not a three-stage RDE→ramjet→scramjet sequence.
2 sources
- GE Aerospace and Lockheed Martin Demonstrate Rotating Detonation Ramjet for Hypersonic Missiles
The rotating detonation ramjet combusts fuel and air through detonation waves ... Ignition is achieved at a lower speed, so smaller boosters can be used for ramjet start.
- GE Aerospace Demonstrates Hypersonic Dual-Mode Ramjet with Rotating Detonation Combustion
A typical air-breathing DMRJ propulsion system can only begin operating when the vehicle achieves supersonic speeds of greater than Mach 3. GE Aerospace engineers are working on a rotating detonation-enabled dual mode ramjet...