Chinese researchers have built a prototype hypersonic flight engine based on a design by NASA that was scrapped more than two decades ago.
development comes months after the Chinese regime tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile that reportedly took U.S. intelligence by surprise.
In a peer-reviewed paper published Dec. 5 in China’s Journal of Propulsion Technology, a Chinese research team said that, thanks to a two-decade-old American design, they had developed and tested a prototype hypersonic flight engine.
team, led by Tan Huijun, a professor at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in eastern China’s Jiangsu Province, said in the paper the design by NASA attracted much attention among Chinese researchers, since “understanding its work mechanism can provide important guidance to hypersonic plane and engine development.”
American design was proposed by Tang Ming Han, a Chinese American, when he was the chief engineer of NASA’s High-Speed Research Program from 1996 to 1999. Unlike most hypersonic aircraft designs that has one engine on its belly, Tang proposed a Two-Stage Vehicle X-plane that had two separate engines on each side of the aircraft.
two engines work as normal turbine jet engines when the plane travels at lower speeds, and can quickly switch to high-speed mode to accelerate to a hypersonic speed—which, by definition, is at least five times faster than the speed of sound.
NASA design was supposed to be verified by the Boeing Manta X-47C program. But due to the high cost and several technical issues, the program was terminated by the U.S. government in the early 2000s. Thus the effectiveness of Tang’s design had remained an open question.
In 2011, the NASA design was declassified.
Now, ten years after the declassification, Chinese researchers announced they have built and tested a prototype flying machine with two side-opening inlets, the same as Tang’s design.
According to the paper, the team tested the prototype in March for several seconds in a wind tunnel, a large tube that can simulate flight conditions at super high speeds from Mach 4 to Mach 8. Hypersonic speeds start at Mach 5.
test showed Tang’s dual-engine layout works but is not perfect, according to the paper. Computer simulation and experimental results suggested strong turbulence was likely to occur around the corners of the inlets which could affect the flight stability. “re was also a limit to how steeply a plane could climb without choking the engines,” the team said. “Many challenging issues still had to be resolved.”
Hypersonic Race
In July, China tested a hypersonic weapon that circled the globe before dropping off a glide vehicle. test involved launching a rocket that carried a hypersonic glide vehicle in orbit before it released the glide vehicle that re-entered the atmosphere and sped at hypersonic speeds toward its target. vehicle also reportedly released a second missile, an unprecedented capability.
Unlike an intercontinental ballistic missile which travels in a predictable parabolic arc and can be tracked by long-range radars, a hypersonic weapon flies at lower altitudes at much faster speeds and can maneuver to its target. This makes it harder for U.S. defense systems to track.
Further, U.S. missile defense systems are aimed at ballistic missile threats coming over the North Pole, so the technology could be used to send nuclear warheads over the South Pole and blindside America.
If the Chinese regime’s new weapon experiment reaches maturity, it would pose a major challenge to the United States’ current missile-defense systems.
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) initially denied they carried out such a test, which was first reported by Financial Pezou, but the Pentagon officials have confirmed the event.
According to Financial Pezou, the glide vehicle missed its target by roughly 24 miles. For that reason, some U.S. military experts don’t consider the test was a complete success.
Gen. John Hyten, then-vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in October that the United States military researched a hypersonic glide vehicle system similar to the one tested by China, but after two failed tests, the project was canceled. He also said the missile looked like a nuclear first-use weapon.
He lamented the Pentagon’s complicated bureaucracy and risk-averse culture, and its unwillingness to suffer failures in the development process. se factors, he said, had prevented the United States from developing more advanced technologies to counter China’s advancing of its military capabilities.
According to a recent report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Chinese weapons manufacturers took the second-biggest share of global sales after U.S. firms in 2020. Swedish think tank said that China’s modernization program had driven its arms producers more competitive.
Meanwhile, a July study by the RAND Corporation noted that though CCP’s military had overcome many technological obstacles to chip away at the United States’ supremacy in recent years, much of its progress came from intellectual property theft, foreign acquisitions, and joint ventures.
In the face of China’s accelerating military advancements, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said earlier this month that “America isn’t a country that fears competition.
“We’re clear-eyed about the challenge China presents. But China’s not 10 feet tall – this is America,” Austin said during a speech at the Reagan National Defense Forum on Dec. 4.
“We have the greatest innovators in the world, and we’re going to do what’s necessary to create the capabilities that help us maintain the competitive edge going forward,” he added.
Two days after Austin’s speech, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency announced that it had finished installing radar arrays and completed the military construction for the Long-Range Discrimination Radar in Alaska. Agency said in a statement that radar would be able to address hypersonic missiles in future configurations.
Pezou : Chinese Researchers Built Hypersonic Aircraft Prototype Using Design Scrapped by NASA