China is building the world’s fastest wind tunnel to simulate hypersonic flight at speeds of up to 12 kilometers per second (mach 40, 43200 kph, 26843 mph). A hypersonic vehicle flying at this speed from China could reach the west coast of the United States in less than 14 minutes. Zhao Wei, a senior scientist …
China Central Television (CCTV) aired a special talked about the JF-12 hypersonic wind tunnel. This is the largest testing setup of its kind in the world and can produce air speeds up to Mach 9 thanks to its pulse detonation engine. There is also a test shape that looks like the DF-ZF hypersonic vehicle. There …
China plans to launch its reusable spaceplane in 2020, according to a statement from China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. Unlike traditional one-off spacecraft, the new spacecraft will fly into the sky like an aircraft, said Chen Hongbo, a researcher from the corporation. The spacecraft can transport people or payload into the orbit and return …
Ashley Dove-Jay, PhD researcher in Aerospace Engineering, University of Bristol, analyzed the launch costs of fully reusable Spacex rockets against the also in development Skylon spaceplanes. UPDATE : There is an update on the Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket which should have a 24 hour turnaround with no refurbishment resue and will be reusable about …
Generation Orbit is developing GOLauncher 1. It is an air launched single stage rocket capable of serving microgravity, astrophysics, and hypersonics researchers. GO1 can fly a range of suborbital trajectories including high altitude and suppressed. Multiple payload configurations can accommodate both integrated and recoverable experiments, as well as deployable hardware. Currently in development, the GOLauncher …
The US Air Force will award an engineering, manufacturing and development contract in early fiscal year 2018 to either Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Orbital ATK or Raytheon. Only those companies could produce the weapon within the USAF’s timeframe, according to a 21 July notice of contract action on the US Federal Business Opportunities website. …
The US-Australia Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation (HiFIRE) program had at least one successful hypersonic flight at Woomera testing range in South Australia last week. A round of experiments concluded on 12 July, confirmed Australian defense minister Marise Payne. UQ hypersonics researchers collaborated with the Defence Science and Technology Group (DST Group) and US Air …
The continuing successful tests of Hypersonic missiles and anti-missiles by Russia, China and the United States will see a few dozen mostly short range hypersonic missiles and anti-missiles deployed by 2020. These will mainly be mach 5 to mach 10 missiles with ranges of 250 to 600 miles. Longer ranges and larger numbers of hypersonic …
Boeing Company has been chosen by DARPA to build the XS-1 Spaceplane. DARPAh aims to build and fly the first of an entirely new class of hypersonic aircraft that would bolster national security by providing short-notice, low-cost access to space. The program aims to achieve a capability well out of reach today—launches to low Earth …
DARPA will soon select a company to build its robotic XS-1 space plane. After downselect, a critical design review shuold take place in 2018, and a series of flights could be made as early as 2020. The XS-1 space plane will consist of a reusable booster vehicle and an expendable upper stage. According to the …
The Director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Siberian Branch Vasily Fomin sayd Russian scientists have surpassed their colleagues from the United States on hypersonic speed advances. The Russian Defense Ministry said Russia is targeting initial hypersonic missile and other advanced weapons deployments by 2025 within the framework of the 2018-2025 State Armaments Program. China …
