History
The first serious attempt to make a production air-augmented rocket was the Soviet Gnom rocket design, implemented by Decree 708-336 of the Soviet Ministers of 2 July 1958. This was an ICBM whose performance was so improved that it weighed half that of conventional designs. This led to it being light enough, about 30 tonnes, that it could be mounted on the back of a large tank chassis and made fully transportable. Design and test work continued on the design throughout the early 1960s, but ended in 1965 when the chief designer died.
More recently NASA has re-examined similar technology for the GTX program as part of an effort to develop SSTO spacecraft.
Many modern solid fueled 'ramjet' powered missiles, such as the Mbda meteor, may in fact be air augmented rockets, and the distinction between a ramjet and an air augmented missile is rather blurred. Many solid fueled ramjet missiles seem to be solid fueled ramrockets in all but name.
Read more about this topic: Air-augmented Rocket
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