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China builds hypersonic jet engine capable of flying at 16 TIMES the speed of sound that could fly anywhere in the world “in two hours,” Beijing says.
- The prototype is called the Soramjet engine and was tested in a Beijing wind tunnel
- Speeds achieved of Mach nine: the maximum test conditions of the tunnel
- The researchers say the analysis reveals the engine would run up to Mach 16
A hypersonic jet engine that could travel at 16 times the speed of sound has been successfully tested in a Chinese wind tunnel, according to reports.
The prototype is called the Soramjet engine and, if ever enlarged and installed on commercial aircraft, it could allow it to travel anywhere in the world in less than two hours.
Beijing researchers who led the project say the engine could be used to power planes that take off from a traditional runway, fly into orbit and land at an airport after re-entering the planet’s atmosphere.
If ever such hypersonic motors were to be mastered, they could also be used as devastating military weapons.
A hypersonic jet engine that could travel at 16 times the speed of sound has been successfully tested in a Chinese wind tunnel, according to reports. In the photo, the Soramjet in the wind tunnel
According to the report, the new engine consists of a single-stage air intake that directs the air into a combustion chamber where it ignited the onboard hydrogen fuel.
Tests at the JF-12 Shock Tunnel in Beijing have been performed up to Mach up to nine, nine times the speed of sound. The speed of sound is 767 mph.
The experiment was a success and the engine ran steadily, reports the South China Morning Post.
Researchers revealed the breakthrough technology in a peer-reviewed scientific paper published by Jiang Zonglin, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Success at Mach nine was made possible by taking a different approach to the other known form of hypersonic jet engines, known as scramjets.
Left: a photo of the tet engine provided in the scientific paper. Right: its installation in the JF-12 wind tunnel in Beijing
These are different from traditional turbojet engines seen on current airplanes and have no moving parts.
Instead, they use their rapid speed to compress the air in front of them and this in turn burns the fuel, creating propulsion.
However, these engines, which are still in testing and have no real world implications yet, have a major flaw that prevents them from surpassing Mach 7.
Dependence on compressing the air in front of the engine and using it means that the inevitable shock waves – sonic booms – put out the flames, forcing the engine to shut down.
Soramjets are based on a theory initially advanced by an engineer named Richard Morrison in 1980 who said that shockwaves could be used to ignite fuel, not only nullifying the scramjet’s face problem, but turning it into a positive one.
According to the report, the new engine consists of a single-stage air intake that directs air into a combustion chamber where it ignited the onboard hydrogen.
Professor Jiang led a team of experts who started building a machine using this technique from scratch.
It was a success, and unlike the scramjets, the new design managed to perform up to Mach nine conditions.
The wind tunnel has not been able to replicate conditions beyond these and there is no laboratory on Earth yet capable of testing the hypothesis that it could work at Mach 16.
Although the findings were published in a journal, the contents of the article need to be considered carefully.
An anonymous expert not involved in the study told SCMP that the publications have been carefully vetted to ensure no information on the latest Chinese technology leaks.
This is due to the investment the Chinese government has in the hypersonic program for its applications as a weapon, which is shrouded in mystery and a path that the Asian superpower is actively pursuing.
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