China Claims to Have Tested a “New Hypersonic Aircraft that Rides Shock Waves

U.S. intelligence expects China’s first hypersonic missiles to be combat ready around 2020.

byZachary Keck

China recently tested a new hypersonic vehicle.

“China has successfully developed and tested a cutting-edge hypersonic aircraft that rides its own shock waves,” the state-run China Daily reported on August 6th.

The test was conducted by China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics, part of the contractor China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, on August 3rd. It appears to be the first test of the Starry Sky 2, a hypersonic experimental waverider vehicle, or at least the first acknowledged one.

“A waverider is a hypersonic aircraft that has a wedge-shaped fuselage designed to improve its supersonic lift-to-drag ratio by using the shock waves generated by its own flight as a lifting force,” the China Daily article explained.

There are two basic types of hypersonic missiles. The first are called hypersonic glide vehicles (HGVs) and are characterized by being launched into the atmosphere from a rocket and gliding to their targets at low altitudes.

These HGVs typically fly at faster speeds than the second type of hypersonic missiles, called hypersonic cruise missiles (HCMs). As their name suggests, HCMs are cruise missiles that fly at hypersonic speeds. During their entire flight, they are powered by rockets or high-speed jet engines like scramjets.