well ame, scramjets are far from imaginary. being an aero engineering major; i have great fascination with hi-tech, super high speed transportation. let me be the first to say that pop science is just that, popular. it isnt nessesarily a good source of technological developments. its pages are marked to sell, not to inform.
as far as what makes the SCramjet, or Supersonic Combustable ramjet engine real is several things, some of which im not supposed to talk about :idea:

Think SR-71....there are some other seclusive, and a few public research vehicles in existance, and perhaps production. there is a test path flown from the east seabord of the US to a military base in Brittan that is known to have experimental aircraft rocketing past ... everything...
some of the problems associated with scramjets is the sonic boom traversing through the combustion chamber. to aleviate this, engineers have developed one meathod to use the sonic boom to their advantage using a process called pulse detonation wave augmentation. and im sorry to call that the combustion chamber, as it would be in a normal ramjet, but it is rather just a feul control mechanism, the detionation happens entirely ouside the engine! it is a controled afterburn for maximum thrust, as well as maximum economy (liter/hours).
for those who dont know what ramjet is, it is a meathod of slowing air flow below the sound barrier, while compressing it for greater propulsion.
think of all the thermal energy produced when (thin) air is slamming into an aircraft at 5000+mph.... whoa ...
i have a little powerpoint slide show i made a few years ago explaining the basics of hypersonic flight if anybody would like it