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posted by chromas on Thursday August 09 2018, @12:00AM   Printer-friendly

China claims to have successfully tested its first hypersonic aircraft

China claims to have successfully tested its first hypersonic aircraft, a big step forward in aerospace technology that could intensify pressure on the US military. The China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics (CAAA), based in Beijing and part of the state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, conducted the first test of the "Starry Sky-2" aircraft last Friday.

Hypersonic vehicles are not simply high-speed -- they travel at least at five times the speed of sound. That's fast enough to travel across the US in around 30 minutes. According to a CAAA statement released Monday, the Starry Sky-2 reached a top speed of Mach 6 -- six times the speed of sound, or 4,563 miles (7,344 kilometers) per hour.

The test was a "complete success," claimed CAAA, which posted photos of the test launch on social media platform WeChat. "The Starry Sky-2 flight test project was strongly innovative and technically difficult, confronting a number of cutting-edge international technical challenges." The CAAA did not indicate what the new aircraft or technology would be used for, other than to say they hoped to continue contributing to China's aerospace industry.

Also at Quartz and NextBigFuture.

Related: General: U.S. Has No Defense Against "Hypersonic Weapons"


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 09 2018, @11:07PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 09 2018, @11:07PM (#719673)

    You find a river in Huntsville, so you build railroads to connect with river traffic. After river shipments become less important due to the railroads, you build roads too. Then when WW2 breaks out you freak out and look for good strategic locations anywhere that have transport and aren't vulnerable to attack so Huntsville looks pretty good so you build a huge chemical plant and later a missile depot. Then after the war you've got a bunch of missile guys there, so you decide to build space rockets and eventually the Saturn series there.

    It's got nothing to do with patriotism or any of that junk.

  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Sunday August 12 2018, @02:42AM

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Sunday August 12 2018, @02:42AM (#720435)

    That's all correct: Huntsville (and also Oak Ridge, TN) were basically planned communities built for WWII or the Cold War.

    However, that's all in the past now, and software is what's really big now, and is critical for building anything. Good luck finding plenty of software engineers willing to move to Alabama to work on some big government-related project.