Hong Kong daily South China Morning Post reports today that China has developed a new surface material for hypersonic vehicles that can remain intact after a long flight, technology that was previously thought impossible.
In a test conducted by the Chinese military, the thin material was applied to the surface of a “waverider” aircraft—which uses shock waves generated by its own flight to improve lift. The air around the hypersonic aircraft was then heated to thousands of degrees Celsius.
The smooth, non-ablative surface not only kept critical components inside the aircraft cool, but also allowed wireless signals to go in and out freely, making target identification and communication possible throughout the flight, according to analysis of telemetry data.
Such new thermal protection technology could help in the development of another generation of reusable hypersonic vehicles with “longer range and faster speed, and constantly break through the boundary of flying,” wrote the team led by Ai Bangcheng, deputy director of the China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics in Beijing.
The hypersonic race has moved into a new stage, Ai and his colleagues said, with “enormous challenges and opportunities.” With traditional ballistic missiles, the warhead could reach hypervelocity, or more than five times the speed of sound, before it dropped on to a target.
