It’s been over two decades since Concorde made its final flight, ending an era of supersonic travel. Since then, companies and organizations have been racing to bring back high-speed passenger jets. A Chinese research team has now claimed to have invented a powerful detonation engine for hypersonic flights, which could revolutionize the aviation industry.
The revolutionary air-breathing engine, designed by Zhang Yining and his team at Beijing Power Machinery Institute, can theoretically propel an aircraft to speeds of up to Mach 16 (12,250 mph) at an altitude of 30 km. This would significantly reduce intercontinental flight times, making it possible for the longest flights to take just two hours or less.
The engine operates in two modes: below Mach 7, it functions as a continuous rotating detonation engine, and above Mach 7, it focuses on a circular platform at the rear of the engine. This allows the engine to maintain thrust through a nearly straight- line oblique detonation format.
Compared to traditional turbofan engines, which achieve 20-30 percent efficiency, detonation engines can theoretically convert almost 80 percent of chemical energy into kinetic energy. The team behind the revolutionary engine claims it will bring a significant change in aerospace propulsion, with obvious advantages over traditional engines.
Source: https://luxurylaunches.com/travel/china-develops-revolutionary-hypersonic-engine.php