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Chinese team says hypersonic engine can hit Mach 9 on low-cost jet fuel
- The device travels at nine times the speed of sound without the expense or explosion risk of burning hydrogen, according to paper
- Researchers in China say ground experiments at Beijing’s JF-12 shock tunnel were successful
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Stephen Chenin Beijing
Researchers in China say they have developed the world’s first hypersonic detonation wave engine capable of powering flight at nine times the speed of sound using low-cost jet fuel.
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Several successful ground experiments for the oblique detonation engine, which generates thrust through a burst of explosions, were carried out at the JF-12 hypersonic shock tunnel in Beijing earlier this year, according to the researchers.
The team led by Liu Yunfeng, a senior engineer with the Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, revealed technical details of the kerosene-powered engine in a paper published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Experiments in Fluid Mechanics on November 11.
“No test results for [hypersonic detonation engines using] aviation kerosene have been made public before,” they wrote.
A detonation engine can run more efficiently and powerfully than other hypersonic engines such as the scramjet. The detonation wave triggers a series of explosions, which happen almost instantly and release considerably more energy than conventional combustion does with the same amount of fuel, especially at speeds over Mach 8.
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