China develops hypersonic flight stimulating tunnel JF 22, with speed 30 times higher than sound

China has created a facility that will be able to stimulate the flights having a speed thirty times that of the speed of sound which will put China ahead of the US and Europe in the race of hypersonic technology.

Image credit: South China Morning Post

Beijing: China has assembled a wind tunnel named JF-22 which is capable of simulating flights at up to 10km per second – 30 times the speed of sound. This technology will put China decades ahead of the rest of the world in hypersonic technology.

Han Guilai, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences said in an online lecture last week that the JF-22 wind tunnel, in Beijing’s Huairou district, was capable of simulating flights at up to 10km per second – 30 times the speed of sound. Together with an existing facility, also in Beijing, it would put China “about 20 to 30 years ahead” of the West, reported South China Morning Post.

With this technology, the super-fast jet will be able to complete three rounds of the earth in just one hour as the earth has a diameter of 12,714 Km while the jet has a speed of 37,013 Km per hour.

According to the report, this technology could also make space travel accessible to ordinary people as hypersonic aircraft could cut costs by more than 90%.

America’s most advanced wind tunnel, the LENS II (Large Energy National Shock tunnels), simulated flights last 30 milliseconds, running between Mach 3 and 9 while, JF-22’s average flight simulation can reach 130 milliseconds.

“Our experiment time is much longer than theirs, so the aircraft model can be larger than theirs, and the experiments can be more advanced than theirs. This determines our leading position in the world,” said  Han Guilai.