Hypersonic wind tunnel puts China years ahead in missile race
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Hypersonic wind tunnel puts China years ahead in missile race
Article and photos in The Times.
China has developed the world’s most advanced wind tunnel, capable of simulating 30 times the speed of sound and handing Beijing an edge in the race for hypersonic weapons.
The JF-22 facility in Beijing could replicate speeds of up to 23,000mph, far outstripping its rivals in the United States. It is due for completion this year.
Han Guilai, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, estimated that it would place China 20 to 30 years ahead of the West. The US and Russia are developing hypersonic missiles that can be launched into space carrying nuclear payloads. To do so they must first build wind tunnels to simulate conditions that the hypersonic weapons will experience in flight.
The new wind tunnel is said to use chemical explosions to generate high-speed air flow instead of mechanical compressors. This in turn creates shockwaves, temperatures and pressures similar to those experienced by high-velocity aircraft and weapons.
In contrast the most advanced wind tunnel in America, the Lens II in Buffalo, New York, is used by Nasa to recreate conditions of up to Mach 9 for a shorter time than the Chinese facility. There are wind tunnels using similar technology in Japan and Germany.
Russia has advanced testing facilities in St Petersburg. Its hypersonic weapons chief, Professor Alexander Kuranov, 73, was arrested by FSB agents this month on suspicion of handing classified information to a foreign state. “Representatives of the US and China showed interest,” sources told state media after his arrest.
The Chinese breakthrough could fuel fears of a new nuclear arms race in space. Writing in The Times in June, Lord Hague of Richmond, the former foreign secretary, warned that hypersonic weapons represented a growing threat to the West. “If you think . . . that your hardened silo will be taken out by a hypersonic missile . . . then you have to decide at an earlier stage of a crisis whether to launch,” he wrote.
Announcing the development on state media on Monday, Chinese officials stressed its non-military capabilities. “The basic thought for this JF-22 wind tunnel is for our country’s space aircraft system,” Jiang Zonglin, head of the project, told China Central Television. “If we are successful we can reduce the costs of the satellite launches and spacecraft launches by 90 per cent.”
Jiang said that a hypersonic aircraft could easily reach anywhere in the world within two hours. “From now on, we will be testing, and problems are most likely to surface during this phase,” he said. “We will be very, very careful . . . to ensure safety.”
Western powers view China’s reach into space with concern. President Biden’s latest budget realigned defence spending priorities in favour of modernising its nuclear arsenal with money set aside to research and develop hypersonic weapons and “next generation” systems. “We must modernise if deterrence is to endure and I would seek to increase the speed and scale of innovation,” Kathleen Hicks, the deputy defence secretary, said in February.
The development is being hailed in China as a landmark moment in its burgeoning space programme, which has sent land rovers to the Moon and Mars. “A wind tunnel is like the cradle of the spacecraft,” Jiang said. “ Only with a wind tunnel can we build engines and build spacecraft. It’s been the goal of our team for the past five or six decades.”
The first wind tunnel built by Jiang and his team was the JF-12 in Beijing in 2012. “A lot of people said it was not feasible and that you would waste money, but after ten years of experiments we came to believe this technology would be usable,” he said.
The Chinese military has successfully tested two new missiles. According to the state broadcaster they “precisely hit the target with multiple protections several hundred kilometres away” and “effectively paralysed the crucial information point of the enemy’s defence system”.
The report did not reveal the types of the missiles, but observers believe that they are probably from the DF-16 family, which has a range of 500 to 900 miles. The missiles are most likely to be used in an armed attack against Taiwan, a self-governed island that Beijing wants to seize, according to observers.
The JF-22 facility in Beijing could replicate speeds of up to 23,000mph, far outstripping its rivals in the United States. It is due for completion this year.
Han Guilai, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, estimated that it would place China 20 to 30 years ahead of the West. The US and Russia are developing hypersonic missiles that can be launched into space carrying nuclear payloads. To do so they must first build wind tunnels to simulate conditions that the hypersonic weapons will experience in flight.
The new wind tunnel is said to use chemical explosions to generate high-speed air flow instead of mechanical compressors. This in turn creates shockwaves, temperatures and pressures similar to those experienced by high-velocity aircraft and weapons.
In contrast the most advanced wind tunnel in America, the Lens II in Buffalo, New York, is used by Nasa to recreate conditions of up to Mach 9 for a shorter time than the Chinese facility. There are wind tunnels using similar technology in Japan and Germany.
Russia has advanced testing facilities in St Petersburg. Its hypersonic weapons chief, Professor Alexander Kuranov, 73, was arrested by FSB agents this month on suspicion of handing classified information to a foreign state. “Representatives of the US and China showed interest,” sources told state media after his arrest.
The Chinese breakthrough could fuel fears of a new nuclear arms race in space. Writing in The Times in June, Lord Hague of Richmond, the former foreign secretary, warned that hypersonic weapons represented a growing threat to the West. “If you think . . . that your hardened silo will be taken out by a hypersonic missile . . . then you have to decide at an earlier stage of a crisis whether to launch,” he wrote.
Announcing the development on state media on Monday, Chinese officials stressed its non-military capabilities. “The basic thought for this JF-22 wind tunnel is for our country’s space aircraft system,” Jiang Zonglin, head of the project, told China Central Television. “If we are successful we can reduce the costs of the satellite launches and spacecraft launches by 90 per cent.”
Jiang said that a hypersonic aircraft could easily reach anywhere in the world within two hours. “From now on, we will be testing, and problems are most likely to surface during this phase,” he said. “We will be very, very careful . . . to ensure safety.”
Western powers view China’s reach into space with concern. President Biden’s latest budget realigned defence spending priorities in favour of modernising its nuclear arsenal with money set aside to research and develop hypersonic weapons and “next generation” systems. “We must modernise if deterrence is to endure and I would seek to increase the speed and scale of innovation,” Kathleen Hicks, the deputy defence secretary, said in February.
The development is being hailed in China as a landmark moment in its burgeoning space programme, which has sent land rovers to the Moon and Mars. “A wind tunnel is like the cradle of the spacecraft,” Jiang said. “ Only with a wind tunnel can we build engines and build spacecraft. It’s been the goal of our team for the past five or six decades.”
The first wind tunnel built by Jiang and his team was the JF-12 in Beijing in 2012. “A lot of people said it was not feasible and that you would waste money, but after ten years of experiments we came to believe this technology would be usable,” he said.
The Chinese military has successfully tested two new missiles. According to the state broadcaster they “precisely hit the target with multiple protections several hundred kilometres away” and “effectively paralysed the crucial information point of the enemy’s defence system”.
The report did not reveal the types of the missiles, but observers believe that they are probably from the DF-16 family, which has a range of 500 to 900 miles. The missiles are most likely to be used in an armed attack against Taiwan, a self-governed island that Beijing wants to seize, according to observers.
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We had a Supersonic one in the UK during the war,
I operated a hypersonic wind tunnel in Bedford as a summer job back in the late 60s. It was a blow down tunnel fed from a very large tank of compressed air. IIRC the working section was a few inches across and it was used to examine hypersonic aerofoils. The process was largely automated. My job was just to sit there while the pressure built then push the warning horn, let the air out and then do it all over again until the boffins had enough data. Not terribly glamorous. Sometimes the release valve would stick which made life a bit more exciting. I see the company is still there but the hypersonic tunnel seems to have gone. Mr Optimistic may know of it.
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Would that have been at what I knew as the Cranfield Institute of Technology and Professor John Stollery
who I think was instrumental in the hypersonic gun tunnels as they were known ?
who I think was instrumental in the hypersonic gun tunnels as they were known ?
This wind tunnel doesn't put China anywhere in hypersonic weapons development race until the wind tunnel is completed and is demonstrated to meet its design objectives. Even then, having a hypersonic wind tunnel doesn't do much good if you can't solve the daunting challenges of developing the materials required for hypersonic flight.
This article sounds too much like CCP propaganda.
This article sounds too much like CCP propaganda.
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The wartime supersonic one is at Brooklands and was used by Barnes Wallis if I remember correctly, it was a balloon in a building that was balloon shaped internally, the air was then let out of a small orifice attaining supersonic speed for a brief time, I seem to remember under a second?
I believe that hypersonic missiles over long distances are slower than exo-atmospheric/ballistic missiles and have the deficiency that they produce very large heat signatures, readily detected from space by satellites - likely the same ones that currently can detect ballistic missile launches.
Sure, it's impressive to make a vehicle that can operate under those conditions, but it isn't useful to do so when existing better solutions already exist.
"Jiang said that a hypersonic aircraft could easily reach anywhere in the world within two hours." That's at least twice as long as a ballistic missile takes.
Sure, it's impressive to make a vehicle that can operate under those conditions, but it isn't useful to do so when existing better solutions already exist.
"Jiang said that a hypersonic aircraft could easily reach anywhere in the world within two hours." That's at least twice as long as a ballistic missile takes.
Ah yes, the dreaded wind tunnel gap...
Don’t see what the fuss is about, Australia has a facility that exceeds this.“The original X3 configuration is optimised for the most extreme flight speeds imaginable and can simulate planetary entry conditions well beyond 40,000 kilometres per hour, for about one millisecond,” Dr Gildfind said.
“With X3R, we operate the machine in a different way, which can extend the test time to over 10 milliseconds; while this restricts the maximum speed to around 8000 kilometres an hour, it’s this lower speed that will allow us to make big advancements in terrestrial hypersonic flight.””
https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2...rsonic-testing
thus results in testing https://www.smh.com.au/politics/fede...30-p56j5a.html
“With X3R, we operate the machine in a different way, which can extend the test time to over 10 milliseconds; while this restricts the maximum speed to around 8000 kilometres an hour, it’s this lower speed that will allow us to make big advancements in terrestrial hypersonic flight.””
https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2...rsonic-testing
thus results in testing https://www.smh.com.au/politics/fede...30-p56j5a.html
This wind tunnel doesn't put China anywhere in hypersonic weapons development race until the wind tunnel is completed and is demonstrated to meet its design objectives. Even then, having a hypersonic wind tunnel doesn't do much good if you can't solve the daunting challenges of developing the materials required for hypersonic flight.
This article sounds too much like CCP propaganda.
This article sounds too much like CCP propaganda.
Agree.
Building a hypersonic tunnel is the easy bit.
Using it to find materials that can withstand hypersonic flight, designing engines that can transition to and sustain prolonged Mach five plus speeds, designing a vehicle that can be controlled effectively at those speeds, guiding it effectively and to target, then doing it all repeatedly and reliably - a lot more difficult.
Despite Chinese and Russian boasts, threats and parading of so-called operational weapons, I'd wager the Yanks still have the lead in hypersonics.
Building a hypersonic tunnel is the easy bit.
Using it to find materials that can withstand hypersonic flight, designing engines that can transition to and sustain prolonged Mach five plus speeds, designing a vehicle that can be controlled effectively at those speeds, guiding it effectively and to target, then doing it all repeatedly and reliably - a lot more difficult.
Despite Chinese and Russian boasts, threats and parading of so-called operational weapons, I'd wager the Yanks still have the lead in hypersonics.
gamecock, even earlier; Halton 1959-62.
Used high pressure air cylinder venting though a pipe with a small clear-view section. Backlit ‘Schlieren’ projection to view test section - an old safety razor blade because the sharp leading edge replicated a supersonic wing section.
Estimated M1.3+ from the shock angle.
Used high pressure air cylinder venting though a pipe with a small clear-view section. Backlit ‘Schlieren’ projection to view test section - an old safety razor blade because the sharp leading edge replicated a supersonic wing section.
Estimated M1.3+ from the shock angle.
Agree.
Building a hypersonic tunnel is the easy bit.
Using it to find materials that can withstand hypersonic flight, designing engines that can transition to and sustain prolonged Mach five plus speeds, designing a vehicle that can be controlled effectively at those speeds, guiding it effectively and to target, then doing it all repeatedly and reliably - a lot more difficult.
Despite Chinese and Russian boasts, threats and parading of so-called operational weapons, I'd wager the Yanks still have the lead in hypersonics.
Building a hypersonic tunnel is the easy bit.
Using it to find materials that can withstand hypersonic flight, designing engines that can transition to and sustain prolonged Mach five plus speeds, designing a vehicle that can be controlled effectively at those speeds, guiding it effectively and to target, then doing it all repeatedly and reliably - a lot more difficult.
Despite Chinese and Russian boasts, threats and parading of so-called operational weapons, I'd wager the Yanks still have the lead in hypersonics.
That does not help with the materials or the actual propulsion system, as those need sustained flow to be properly evaluated. I've seen no claim that the Chinese are close to sustained hypersonics in a wind tunnel.
Imho, that is why progress has been so slow, in effect the early prototypes such as the X-51 were really acting as wind tunnel test specimens.
Just because they were working 100 years ago without the technology we take for granted doesn't mean they were stupid. They were brilliant scientists, designers and engineers, doing things nobody had ever done before. I feel that their achievements deserve a bit more respect.
