China, Too, Has Successfully Tested a Hypersonic Aircraft

FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

China, Too, Has Successfully Tested a Hypersonic Aircraft

Aug. 6, 2018 (EIRNS)—“China has successfully tested its first waverider hypersonic flight vehicle, a weapon that can carry nuclear warheads and break through any current generation anti-missile defense system due to its high speed and unpredictable trajectory, Chinese experts said on Sunday,” Global Times reported on Aug. 5.

The vehicle, called Xingkong-2, or Starry Sky-2, was launched in a target range located in northwest China on Aug. 3, said a statement from the China Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics, which designed the vehicle. The vehicle flew independently, made large-angle turning maneuvers, and landed in the targeted area as planned. It reached 30 kilometers in altitude at Mach 5.5-6, the Academy said.

Song Zhongping, a military expert and TV commentator, told Global Times that a waverider is a flight vehicle that flies in the atmosphere and uses shockwaves generated by its own hypersonic flight with the air to glide at high speed.