Chinese Hypersonic Developments (HGVs/HCMs)

Hendrik_2000

Lieutenant General
From Dafengcao blog

The hypersonic precooled aerospace propulsion R&D team was listed in awards granted to innovative teams, implying major breakthroughs in this field. other awarded teams include the 3rd gen semiconductor (GaN) innovation team, SLBM R&D team, etc.
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Hendrik_2000

Lieutenant General
From GT China making progress on scramjet engine
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China’s hypersonic cruise missile sees technological breakthrough: reports

By Liu Xuanzun Source:Global Times Published: 2020/6/8

A top Chinese science institute recently made record-breaking progress in a scramjet program which Chinese media speculate could lead to significant advances in the development of China's hypersonic cruise missile, another type of hypersonic weapon that is more powerful than China's DF-17 hypersonic glide-boost missile.

A team led by Fan Xuejun at the Institute of Mechanics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a type of scramjet that ran continuously for 600 seconds in a ground test, Weihutang, a program on military affairs affiliated with state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV), reported on over the weekend.

This broke the world record of 210 seconds set by the US' X-51 aircraft, Weihutang said.

A powerful scramjet, also known as supersonic combustion ramjet, is crucial for a hypersonic cruise missile to reach hypersonic speed, but developing one is highly challenging due to issues with heat resistant materials and cooling of the engine, the report said.

Hypersonic weapons are known for their high speeds and unpredictable trajectories, which render most of the current generation of air defense systems useless against them.

China unveiled its DF-17 missile for the first time at the National Day military parade on October 1, 2019. This type of missile was widely believed by military observers to be a hypersonic weapon due to its aerodynamic design.

Weihutang said that the DF-17 is a type of hypersonic glide-boost missile, meaning that it is propelled into the sky via a rocket and glides in the air using shock waves generated by its own hypersonic flight, but the other type of hypersonic weapon, the hypersonic cruise missile, has constant thrust thanks to the scramjet, which gives it a longer range and even more unpredictable trajectory.

The DF-17 is a short to medium-range missile, and using a scramjet can potentially extend its range by at least five times, allowing it to become intercontinental, Shanghai-based news website eastday.com reported on Friday, citing estimations by experts.

Since a hypersonic cruise missile does not require a rocket as large as the one used by a glide-boost missile, its size and weight are smaller, allowing it to be stealthier, the eastday.com report said.

The DF-17 is not the only item in China's hypersonic aircraft program. In August 2018, the China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation successfully launched the Xingkong-2, or Starry Sky-2, China's first waverider hypersonic flight vehicle.

It is not known if the Xingkong-2 is a boost-glide or cruise missile, but a CCTV program aired in late 2019 suggested it might use a different flight pattern to the DF-17.

Other countries including the US and Russia are developing both types of hypersonic weapons, and it will be natural to see China develop new ones following the DF-17, experts told the Global Times.
 

by78

General
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hints at a hypersonic-vehicle-related test. It might (or might not) have something to do with
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Original text:
中国航天科技集团六院165所清水头试验区
5月22日,航天科技集团六院165所:整机抽检试验获得圆满成功。

Translation:
On May 22, a successful experiment was carried out on a complete 'test article' by CASC's 165th Institute at the Qingshuitou test zone.


49992672542_1ff0b0e557_o.png


Judging by the welcome banner, the test was well attended by big-wigs. Too bad the project and experiment code names have been censored.
49991899538_6a6b4154bd_h.jpg


These two (older?) images from the same post hints at the nature of the experiment. The text in the background of the first image reads: "Celebrating the successful test of 100F-G5 (text obscured)". Does anyone know what "100F-G5..." refers to specifically?
49992422041_cfa02cb382_h.jpg

49992669027_8ff1c43dfd_h.jpg


Below is an aerial image of the Qingshuitou test base. As you can see, these are buildings for test-firing rocket engines, so I'm leaning toward this being a successful scramjet test firing.
49992422211_ec70928d40_h.jpg
 
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by78

General
The video is a montage of short clips taken at three testing areas (Qingshuitou, Baolongyu and Fengzhou). The test at Qingshuitou area was a spot inspect of a mass-produced RCS engine and 100F is the one-axis gimbaled version of YF-100 and was tested at Baolongyu area.

False alarm. Thank you for the clarification. Do you have link to this clip?
 

ougoah

Brigadier
Registered Member
The way I understand it is the scramjet powered hypersonic vehicles are slower and travel at a lower altitude than the pure shock wave utilizing gliders which come in either Saenger trajectory or the Qian trajectory (named after Qian Xueshen) depending on range and glide vehicle.

Russian scramjet powered hypersonic weapons like Tsirkon are often shorter ranged and between mach 5 and 10 and typically described as anti-ship compared to their HGV like Avangard which is wave riding and not airbreathing but rocket boosted to higher speeds and altitudes to make use of either Saenger or Qian trajectories and are supposedly able to achieve mach 20 to 27 (wiki numbers based off Russian gov claims for Avangard).

DF-DZ or WU-14 which is supposedly the glide vehicle shown attached to the DF-17 rocket in the Anniversary 2019 parade shows large rocket/gas thruster vents for exo-atmospheric maneuvering, hinting at serious speeds. It's either unpowered or rocket powered since there are no visible intakes unless those thruster vents are actually intakes for scramjets. The end of the vehicle is not visible since it is attached to the DF-17.

I recall there were several reports from many years ago where the government issued awards for certain scramjet breakthroughs. I was convinced the many successful hypersonic vehicle tests confirmed by the US (think 5 or more) between 2013 and 2018 (or something like this) must have been many different types of vehicles. You don't repeat one vehicle this many times. US and Russian hypersonic tests experienced successes where they have not done more than one repeat if that.

Anyway I expect China to also field scramjet powered antiship missiles similar in concept to Tsirkon, air dropped, ship launched, sub launched, land based, whatever... difference in range is fine like CJ-10 variants. These should not be confused with the HGVs even if they are technically hypersonic in speed as well.
 

ougoah

Brigadier
Registered Member
What's interesting is the DF-100. The claimed hypersonic cruise missile where available photos make it seem to carry some resemblance (at least in the boosters) with the Xing-Kong test. Which itself is remarkably similar to the Boeing HyFly concept. At least the intakes are. The Americans don't seem to have pursued Boeing's HyFly but may very well have in secret and now they've got some loitering missile which can deploy submunitions or the hypersonic ordinance itself. HyFly may have ended up becoming or at least contributing to "Vintage Racer". DF-100 may be something similar but more conventional in purpose. DF-100 and Xing-Kong may use some scramjet and all these programs would have been decades in the making since initial academic research. At least one form of DF-100 and wave riding, non-airbreathing HGV are fielded already if not scramjet powered HGVs of more intermediate speeds.
 

SinoSoldier

Colonel
This year's national innovation prize list. Of interest is the 4th item: "高超声速强预冷空天动力".

The team for a "hypersonic pre-cooled air-breathing propulsion system" is being recognized for their work. Basically, such a propulsion system is intended for a single-stage, reusable space launch vehicle (i.e. air-breathing spaceplane). See my posts and @taxiya's excellent translation on page 31-32 of this thread for more information. It appears the project is making progress.

49882802463_988729087f_b.jpg

Maybe this might help answer your question about that high-altitude flight helmet in the other thread. ;)
 
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