The afterburners on combat aircraft require a bigger nozzle to prevent adversely affecting the operation of the engine. The variable area iris[9] nozzle consists of a series of moving, overlapping petals with a nearly circular nozzle cross-section and is convergent to control the operation of the engine. If the aircraft is to fly at supersonic speeds, the afterburner nozzle may be followed by a separate divergent nozzle in an ejector nozzle configuration, as below, or the divergent geometry may be incorporated with the afterburner nozzle in the variable geometry con-di nozzle configuration, as below.