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Ah, so I guess it comes down to whether you consider the inlet and exhaust nozzles to be a part of the engine, or just a part of the air-frame.

Personally I'm of the mindset the inlet and exhaust nozzles are an integral part of the installed engine, particularly in this case given the rather unique intake/engine/exhaust design.

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Yes, agreed. If we were discussing hypersonic airbreathing configurations, for example, no one would be making those kinds of statements. Once you get into the realm of high speeds, the integration between the propulsion components becomes necessarily deeper and tighter, and trying to parcel out that kind of credit is really more of a basis for engineers to rib each other over during happy hour, rather than a rigorously defensible position.

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