From Henri K blog
XTER-1: Xiamen University invites itself to "Hypersonic" club
With the successful flight of its reusable rocket carrying a half-model in "double waverider" configuration, the University of Xiamen has joined, since last Tuesday, its colleague
to become the one of the few Chinese academic actors who have tested a hypersonic device in real life.
The launcher, with a mass of 3.7 tons and co-developed with the startup
Space Transportation Technology (北京 凌空 天 行 科技 限 有限 責任 公責任), took off on April 23 at 07:28 Beijing time from a firing point in the desert located in western China.
The whole was recovered to the ground, intact, after a flight that took place entirely inside the atmosphere whose duration remains unknown. It is known, however, that the craft is 8.7 meters high and has wings with a wingspan of 2.7 meters. "Jiageng 1", or 嘉庚 一号 in Chinese, is indeed a winged pitcher.
According to the published facts, this first test not only tested the aerodynamic characteristics of the "double waverider" concept designed by the University of Xiamen, but also experimented with the recovery of the rocket and its payload thanks to parachutes and air cushions, as well as ground control and monitoring system
If the fact that the hypersonic domain has become one of the most promising fundamental research topics in China remains undeniable, and that many academic and industrial actors are surfing on this upward trend and benefit from various financing, the case of the University of Xiamen and Space Transportation Technology remains interesting and still raises some questions.
Starting with the development cycle - 7 months according to the Chinese faculty. In its article published the same day of the launch, Xiamen University announces that the joint teams with Space Transportation Technology have completed the design, manufacture and launch mission in just 7 months. In other words, the XTER-1 project, a double-waverider machine tested during the flight, and the Jiageng-1 launcher, was started in September 2018.
A record speed certainly, but surprising, to ask how this is possible. A quick search on the startup Space Transportation Technology suggests that its leader, WANG Yi Dong (王毓栋), would be a known researcher in the hypersonic field and a former CALT Institute, builder of most Chinese rockets Long March. WANG was invited to present his research at the first conference of the
Chinese Aerodynamics Research Society in 2018.
So we could have thought of a classic collaboration, where Xiamen University provides the payload, namely the double waverider XTER-1, and Space Transportation Technology rocket and launch services. But we learn that the Jiageng-1 reusable winged launcher is developed on the basis of Tianxing I (天 行 I), which has a priori never flown before.
And a NORINCO publication sows even more doubt in the story. In fact, the Chinese land-based group has welcomed the success of its powder engine, which propelled Jiageng-1 and XTER-1 in their inaugural flight, in an article published on his social network account Weixin. It is also the first flight for this NORINCO engine, and the article mentions an altitude of 27.4 km reached by the craft, unlike the 26.2 km mentioned by the University of Xiamen and Space Transportation Technology in their communication.
