Chinese Hypersonic Developments (HGVs/HCMs)

These sorts of doubles standards are becoming more and more apparent to everybody outside of the western echo chamber.

Heat-resistant nose cone for a hypersonic UAV... Capable of sustained operation under temperatures of up to 350 degrees celsius. Carbon-fiber composite construction meant a weight saving of 30% compared to titanium.

Some screen captures of research papers into hypersonic flight. My Chinese isn't good enough to translate the technical jargons, so I will provide a brief summary for each, and I'll let competent Chinese speakers have a crack at translating these.

This first one here needs no translation, since the abstract is in English.


This next paper is on optimal trajectory control of a lift-body vehicle during atmospheric re-entry. The gist, as I understand it, is that such a vehicle's trajectory control can be achieved by altering the 'direction' of the lift, without changing the total amount of lift.


This last paper examines the optimal fuselage shape for a hypersonic vehicle to satisfy a set of requirements that include low drag and low radar reflectivity, optimal lift-to-drag ratio, etc.

I found a series of images from a seminar. They seem to indicate an effort at a space plane using combined cycle rocket engine. My technical Chinese is very limited, so I was unable to translate these. For our Chinese speaking members, do you spot anything interesting?

by78 said:

I found a series of images from a seminar. They seem to indicate an effort at a space plane using combined cycle rocket engine. My technical Chinese is very limited, so I was unable to translate these. For our Chinese speaking members, do you spot anything interesting?

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Excellent materials. I will give a rough summary of what is being talked about.

Full 3D unified theory of wave riding.
It is about their research methodology being "water-fall -> reverse -> aerodynamic driven reversed".
The interesting part is that the speaker is from Xiamen university who just launched a wave rider on top of a rocket recently. I suspect this university is assigned to the aerodynamic task of a coordinated program.

Mathematical solution of calculating different types of shock waves: straight, curved and "tangent plane of curved"

Simulation of engine fuel burning by a computer of 100 million heterogeneous cores. It must be one of the super computers.
The speaker is from Sichuan university, combustion mechanics center.
The research includes three parts: subsonic combustion, supersonic combustion and common part.

Sichuan University, active fuel cooling
fuel type EHF-1, at 800 degrees Celsius, the heat removal capacity is 4.5MJ/kg.

by78 said:

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This is from a PLA institute about plasma flow control of engine. The engine must be a scramjet for the heat to be so high to ionize air flow.

This is from Northwest Polytechnic University.
Charactristics and backgroud (horizontal take-off, two staged orbital craft using RBCC)
Stage seperation at Mach 7 to 8.

The progress of the above,
Item 3. using machine-learning for simulation.

Continue,
something about Methane fuel research using machine-learning.

中国航天空气动力技术研究院第一研究所圆满完成两级入轨空天飞行器风洞自由分离试验，两级并联飞行器成功分离，为未来两级入轨空天飞行器的研制提供了技术道路探索。

First Research Institute of the China Academy of Aerodynamics Research has successfully completed a free-separation test of a two-stage spaceplane in a wind tunnel.

@taxiya, please help with a translation. It appears to be a development timeline of a hypersonic plane with combined cycle rocket engine. Thank you.

by78 said:

@taxiya, please help with a translation. It appears to be a development timeline of a hypersonic plane with combined cycle rocket engine. Thank you.

Click to expand...

CASIC 31st institute, pre-cooler engine technology road-map.

I am not sure if the time of each milestone is when the said tech is achieved or beginning. In the following translation, I take "achieved" because this interpretation does fit information from earlier leaks, but do keep in mind it may be the other.

CASIC 31st institute, aka Beijing Aero Engine Mechanics Institute, is the one that proposed TRRE (TBCC+RBCC). It is also the one that successfully tested a full-sized Turbine Based Combined Cycle engine demonstrator (TRRE or TBCC unknown) in December 2018.

2020, breakthrough of key technology of pre-cooler, closed cycle etc.
2023, ???class/stage, single module, demonstration craft produced. (texts blocked)
2025, engineering prototype of 15 tonne class produced.
2029, single/due-mode (RAM, SCRAM) flight demonstration.
2035, engineering prototype of 30 tonne class produced.

Considering that by 2029, there is a demonstration flight, the 15T engine MUST have been made by 2025 than beginning to be made. That gives the engine less than 4 years to be thoroughly tested before being installed for flight test. This is also the reason I choose to interpret every milestone as achieved rather than beginning.