China to build ‘world’s fastest’ hypersonic wind tunnel
BEIJING: China has announced it is building the world’s fastest wind tunnel to develop a new generation of super-fast airplanes, but it could also be used for hypersonic missile technology.
Wind tunnels test how air will pass over a solid object, helping designers improve aerodynamics or reduce stress points for objects as they reach high speeds.
State-run Xinhua news agency ran a report late on Monday revealing the development of what it said would be “the world’s fastest hypersonic wind tunnel”.
“The 265m-long tunnel can be used to test hypersonic aircraft that can travel at speeds of up to Mach 25 (30,625kph), 25 times the speed of sound,” Han Guilai, a researcher with China’s State Key Laboratory of High Temperature Gas Dynamics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was quoted as saying.
To compare, the current fastest generation of fighter jets can travel up to Mach 2.5.
The revelation comes as the world’s leading military nations embark on a race to develop the next generation of hypersonic weapons, from missiles and spy planes to railguns, that can beat conventional defence systems.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin this month boasted that his nation had developed a new generation of “invincible” hypersonic missiles, sparking anger in the United States and other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation countries.
While experts are deeply sceptical about how close to operational such a missile might be, US officials in recent weeks have sounded growing alarm about the potential threat from hypersonic weapons, defined as weapons that can travel at five times the speed of sound or more.
Such weapons can beat regular anti-missile defences as they are designed to switch direction in flight and do not follow a predictable arc like conventional missiles, making them much harder to track and intercept.
The Xinhua report said the Chinese Academy of Sciences had already simulated a hypersonic plane flight in its current wind tunnel at speeds “ranging from Mach 5 and 9”.