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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2016
Few aeronautical engineers would disagree that the development of new propulsive systems has been the main influence responsible for the achievement of supersonic flight. This is not the same thing as claiming that sustained flight at these speeds, over fairly long ranges and with reasonable economy, would ever be possible without correspondingly large contributions from the aerodynamicist, the structural engineer, and the designers of various equipment. However, if we had been limited for all time to the piston engine/ propeller power plant almost universally employed juring the first 40 years of heavier-than-air flight, it is unlikely that we should ever have exceeded a Mach number of one.