China’s JF-22 Hypersonic Wind Tunnel May Enable Mach 30

Maya Carlin, Warrior Contributor, Weapons

As tensions between Beijing and Washington continue to soar, China is laser-focused on developing its military capabilities. A few weeks ago, Chinese state-run news outlets released video footage depicting the country’s JF-22 hypersonic wind tunnel.

The footage appears to showcase the high-speed detonation scramjet wave engine in addition to the testing of an air-launched space plane design.

Several Twitter handles have republished the clips broadcasted on the country’s largest television network China Central television’s Channel 13.

What (little) we know about the JF-22: Mach 30

In late May, Beijing declared that its wind tunnel was ready for hypersonic tests after passing a series of tests. The PRC claims that the JF-22 is the fastest wind tunnel across the globe, able to simulate the environment in which a spacecraft re-enters the atmosphere. In the words of China’s state-media, the wind tunnel is intended to contribute to the country’s “development of aerospace transport systems and hypersonic aircraft.”

Located at the Institute of Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Science in Huairou, the new hypervelocity wind tunnel is expected to support a large number of simulated flight experiments.

Work on the JF-22 wind tunnel, which is reportedly around 550 feet long with a test cabin measuring at roughly 13 feet in diameter, began back in 2018 and was completed two years later.

According to the owner of the Institute of Mechanics, the wing tunnel is capable of simulating hypersonic flight conditions up to Mach 30, or 30 times the speed of sound.