Hendrik_2000
Lieutenant General
(cont)
If no photo or video of the Waverider in question has been disclosed yet, we know at least that this machine would not be very large in size. Indeed, the solid propellant launcher that was used to carry the craft to the test altitude and provide the necessary initial velocity is relatively small, which we estimate should be less than 8 meters long. and 1.3 meters in diameter.
It is even plausible that it is the same booster of the ballistic missile DF-11 (diameter 0.86 meters) since the release of the CAAA evoked the 4th Academy of the group CASIC like designer of the launcher, whereas the DF-11 is precisely a former product of this entity (following the merger with Base 066).
Knowing that the release spoke of the ejection of the cap and the separation of the machine from the launcher "under the high dynamic pressure in hypersonic regime", it is estimated that the Waverider CAAA should not exceed 3 meters in length and a meter in span. In this dimension, it practically excludes it from being propelled, even if the Chinese institution specified that the craft was flying in a "controlled" way.
Excerpt from a CAWA research paper on wind tunnel testing of Waverider models in 2004.
Excerpt from a CAAV 2015 patent filed on Waverider.
It should be noted that other details, including the measurements made during this test flight, were mentioned in , a daily co-administered by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, according to which the Waverider machine has embarked instruments to collect physical and thermal data, as well as those on the interference of separation and the natural / artificial transition flux of the boundary layer.
Also according to this article, it is thanks to the development program of this machine "serving as a hypersonic test bench" that the CAAA engineers were able to realize the "industrialization of a Waverider type flying machine" and to check "the Hypersonic flight controls in static instability and high maneuverability cornering ".
They have also implemented for the first time micro-vortex generators to control the separation between the experimental machine and its launcher, as well as high-conductivity thermal protection technologies.
As for the exact location of the test, we only know that the launcher took off from a shooting site in the west of China. If we take the low range of the revealed figures, namely the minimum speed of Mach 5.5 and the duration of more than 400 seconds, we deduce that the Chinese Waverider has traveled a distance of at least 677 km. The test area should therefore be deep enough in this case and prohibited from flying over any aircraft from the ground level to an altitude of at least 30,000 meters.
There is indeed a message to aircrafts (NOTAM) that meets these criteria, but the associated flight ban is only active between 10h38 and 11h53 Beijing time, while according to the official statement the takeoff of Xing Kong 2 took place the same day but much earlier, around 6:41.
Be that as it may, the CAAA Waverider craft and launcher have taken off from the Korla test site in Xinjiang Province, or from the Jiuquan Space Center in the Gobi Desert.
A3198 / 18
Q) ZWUQ / QARLT / IV / NBO / E /
000/999 / A) ZWUQ B) 1808030238 C) 1808030353
E) THE SEGMENT ESDEX-RUSDI OF ATS RTE W192 CLSD.
F) GND G) UNL
The NOTAM of August 3rd 2018 on zone (Image: East Pendulum)
It should be noted that unlike the - that is, the CALT Institute MF-1 (CASC group) and the "Ling Yun" (凌云) of the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) - who launch from a rail obliquely, the CAAA Xing Kong 2 takes off vertically from a launch tube as a missile.
It is probably for this reason that many Chinese media have already called the Xing Kong 2 a "weapon", while obviously the machine is at this stage only an experimental platform.
Moreover, it is interesting to note that CAAA, a subsidiary of the CASC group, does not seem to have appealed to the CALT Institute, the largest of the main designers of ballistic missiles and space launchers in China, and prefers to turn to the competitor of his parent company to find the carrier rocket of his Waverider.
For the moment, we do not know the real reason for this inter-group collaboration, but one of the possible explanations is that the project is national, or in the process of becoming one, in which case the subject should logically remain discreet. Visibly this is not the case since the test was revealed the same day, which is (very) unusual in China.
Finally, if the Xing Kong 2 is the "first hypersonic Chinese Waverider configuration", as pointed out by its designer CAAA in the release, this amounts to saying that the military hypersonic glider, the one that or DF-ZF previously, would probably be of a different aerodynamic configuration ...
To be continued.
If no photo or video of the Waverider in question has been disclosed yet, we know at least that this machine would not be very large in size. Indeed, the solid propellant launcher that was used to carry the craft to the test altitude and provide the necessary initial velocity is relatively small, which we estimate should be less than 8 meters long. and 1.3 meters in diameter.
It is even plausible that it is the same booster of the ballistic missile DF-11 (diameter 0.86 meters) since the release of the CAAA evoked the 4th Academy of the group CASIC like designer of the launcher, whereas the DF-11 is precisely a former product of this entity (following the merger with Base 066).
Knowing that the release spoke of the ejection of the cap and the separation of the machine from the launcher "under the high dynamic pressure in hypersonic regime", it is estimated that the Waverider CAAA should not exceed 3 meters in length and a meter in span. In this dimension, it practically excludes it from being propelled, even if the Chinese institution specified that the craft was flying in a "controlled" way.
Excerpt from a CAWA research paper on wind tunnel testing of Waverider models in 2004.
Excerpt from a CAAV 2015 patent filed on Waverider.
It should be noted that other details, including the measurements made during this test flight, were mentioned in , a daily co-administered by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, according to which the Waverider machine has embarked instruments to collect physical and thermal data, as well as those on the interference of separation and the natural / artificial transition flux of the boundary layer.
Also according to this article, it is thanks to the development program of this machine "serving as a hypersonic test bench" that the CAAA engineers were able to realize the "industrialization of a Waverider type flying machine" and to check "the Hypersonic flight controls in static instability and high maneuverability cornering ".
They have also implemented for the first time micro-vortex generators to control the separation between the experimental machine and its launcher, as well as high-conductivity thermal protection technologies.
As for the exact location of the test, we only know that the launcher took off from a shooting site in the west of China. If we take the low range of the revealed figures, namely the minimum speed of Mach 5.5 and the duration of more than 400 seconds, we deduce that the Chinese Waverider has traveled a distance of at least 677 km. The test area should therefore be deep enough in this case and prohibited from flying over any aircraft from the ground level to an altitude of at least 30,000 meters.
There is indeed a message to aircrafts (NOTAM) that meets these criteria, but the associated flight ban is only active between 10h38 and 11h53 Beijing time, while according to the official statement the takeoff of Xing Kong 2 took place the same day but much earlier, around 6:41.
Be that as it may, the CAAA Waverider craft and launcher have taken off from the Korla test site in Xinjiang Province, or from the Jiuquan Space Center in the Gobi Desert.
A3198 / 18
Q) ZWUQ / QARLT / IV / NBO / E /
000/999 / A) ZWUQ B) 1808030238 C) 1808030353
E) THE SEGMENT ESDEX-RUSDI OF ATS RTE W192 CLSD.
F) GND G) UNL
The NOTAM of August 3rd 2018 on zone (Image: East Pendulum)
It should be noted that unlike the - that is, the CALT Institute MF-1 (CASC group) and the "Ling Yun" (凌云) of the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) - who launch from a rail obliquely, the CAAA Xing Kong 2 takes off vertically from a launch tube as a missile.
It is probably for this reason that many Chinese media have already called the Xing Kong 2 a "weapon", while obviously the machine is at this stage only an experimental platform.
Moreover, it is interesting to note that CAAA, a subsidiary of the CASC group, does not seem to have appealed to the CALT Institute, the largest of the main designers of ballistic missiles and space launchers in China, and prefers to turn to the competitor of his parent company to find the carrier rocket of his Waverider.
For the moment, we do not know the real reason for this inter-group collaboration, but one of the possible explanations is that the project is national, or in the process of becoming one, in which case the subject should logically remain discreet. Visibly this is not the case since the test was revealed the same day, which is (very) unusual in China.
Finally, if the Xing Kong 2 is the "first hypersonic Chinese Waverider configuration", as pointed out by its designer CAAA in the release, this amounts to saying that the military hypersonic glider, the one that or DF-ZF previously, would probably be of a different aerodynamic configuration ...
To be continued.
