Vertical/short take-off and landing - Lift burning systems

Lift burning systems
26. The thrust of the four nozzle lift/propulsion engine may be boosted by burning fuel in the bypass flow in the duct or plenum chamber supplying the front nozzles. This is called plenum chamber burning (P.C.B.) (fig. 18-16) and thrust of the by-pass air may be doubled by this process. This thrust capability is available for normal flight as well as take-off and landing and so can be used to increase manoeuvra- bility and give supersonic flight.

Fig. 18-16 Plenum chamber burning.

27. The thrust of a remote lift jet can also be augmented by burning fuel in a combustion chamber just upstream of the lift nozzle (fig. 18-17).  This system is commonly known as a remote augmented lift system (R.A.L.3.). The thrust boost available from the burner reduces the amount of airflow to be supplied to it and therefore reduces the size of the ducting needed to direct the air from the engine to the remote lift nozzle.

Fig. 18-17 Remote augmented lift system.

Ejectors
28. The principle of the ejector is that a small, high energy jet entrains large quantities of ambient air by viscous mixing and an increase in thrust over that of the high energy jet results. A number of projected V/STOL aircraft have incorporated this concept using either all the engine exhaust air or just the bypass flow.