An experimental and numerical study was carried out to investigate the combustion process of a kerosene fueled combustor with air throttling. The results were obtained with the inflow conditions of Mach number of 2.0, total temperature of 953 K and total pressure of 0.82 MPa, respectively. The air throttling was located 0.575 m downstream the combustor entrance, and the mass flux of air throttling was 27.2% inflow mass flux. The pilot flame was blown off by the room temperature kerosene when the kerosene supply pressure was 0.25 MPa, but the kerosene was ignited successfully when the throttling air was injected into the combustor, and the flame stabilization was achieved even when the pilot hydrogen was removed. The combustion process could be divided into four parts based on changes in the pressure monitored near the cavity: kerosene was ignited successfully by the pilot flame, and the mixture flame was stable during part-a. As the kerosene supply pressure was increasing, the flame was blown off by the room temperature kerosene in part-b. Successful ignition and flame stabilization had been achieved with the aid of air throttling in part-c, and the combustion mode was subsonic combustion. The flame was stable even after the pilot hydrogen was removed in part-d, but the combustion mode was supersonic combustion. (C) 2017 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.