JF-22 is the name of the wind tunnel it sounds like. The achievement for 2019 is I believe "major breakthrough on sodramjet". sodramjet is "standing oblique detonation ramjet engine" which seems to match the Chinese.
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- Thread starter Jeff Head
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Single stage to orbit delivery vehicle with spaceplane? We know China's got at least one SSO project and they may take various forms. Delivering a spaceplane vehicle to orbit is certainly a military need for China as the US weaponises space further than they already have.
Scramjet breakthroughs leaked many years ago must really be sodramjet mentioned last year. Doesn't make sense for China to have "breakthroughs" in scramjet technologies in the 2010s considering how accessible and simple scramjet technology is and how long China's had both ramjet and scramjet tech. I'm convinced all those 2010s "we have seriously improved scramjets" messages leaking in China was in reference to some development further than basic scramjets.
Honestly the propulsion part for endoatmospheric vehicles well into hypersonic speeds is probably the easy part - with basic scramjets and/or also rocket boosters. The hardest part is guidance, controllability of maneuvering, maneuverability parameters themselves, range of vehicle, electronic and sensor sophistication performed at whatever altitude and speed (depending on roles), and the heat resisting materials and shaping to compromise everything. It's easy to boost a simple scramjet vehicle to >mach 5 but can you turn it and direct it perfectly, how long does it last, fly, perform electronic attack, resist electronic attack, communicate with rest of network etc.
Looks like China's mastered the communications and turning + control part since the 2010s for at least weaponised HGVs and MaRV for AShBM. But the propulsion with older and more basic scramjets left certain projects wanting. The more technically ambitious ones e.g. SSO.
It's all fine and probably better to use easy to manufacture basic scramjets for disposable one use HGV weapons, the vehicle itself being the main source of destructive energy. It's another matter if you want reusable, non-weaponised hypersonic vehicles.
Since China has admitted it has TBCC combined cycle projects () I would imagine it has the entire set of combined cycle propulsion projects because each have unique strengths and it makes no sense for a country as large as China to limit what it at least researches.
TBCC with sodramjet for SSO and various purpose HGVs is the crown jewels of hypersonic propulsion if basic rockets and scramjets make up the first foray into hypersonic propulsion for the past era. Having said that, these propulsion technologies are still the same old chemical method applying Newton's third law. Those Russian nuclear thermal propulsion vehicles like their Burevestnik missile and their space based Nuklon project are also interesting particularly for space travel applications. It is an interesting time for science and tech.
Saudis will be pleased.
Yes they were referring to the J-20. Who would’ve thought…
There are inflatable decoys and then there are decoys that look exactly like the real thing.
If Deino were the enemy pilot though it wouldn’t fool him. The serial is wrong!
If Deino were the enemy pilot though it wouldn’t fool him. The serial is wrong!