After NASA abandoned a hypersonic nuclear missile engine design, Chinese engineers are tinkering with it to have a better transonic power plan for its modern missile weaponry.
China is hopeful that completing the NASA design with superfast missiles that zoom to 6000-miles per hour will be ahead of the United States.
The US is increasingly wary of the People's Liberation Army rocket forces getting ahead in such a crucial technological advantage.
Chinese develops missile from NASA abandoned design
Reports of Chinese research and development of the technology using a design that NASA abandoned more than twenty years ago, the Sun UK reports.
A standard layout for transonic planes has its engine on the undercarriage. Instead, the new design has two engines on the sides called the experimental Two-Stage Vehicle (TSV) X-plane under research.
According to the South China Morning Post, it was presented by Ming Han Tang, a Chinese American engineer in the NASA hypersonic project in the later 1990's. When the engine is in hypersonic speed mode, that drives the X-plane to transonic speed five times.
Chinese technology ahead over the US
The PLA is sure that it will get funds from Beijing to develop the arms to have an equal or better military force than any nation on earth.
Professor Tan Huijun and his fellow scientists at the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Jiangsu; have constructed the machine to the Tang specifications of the NASA hypersonic nuclear missile engine.
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In a paper by Tan and others published by the Chinese Journal of Propulsion Technology, the design explained everything needed to achieve hypersonic flight with plane and engine.
One common reaction in US intelligence circles is that they never thought China would leapfrog the US in devising such technologies soon after the US has issued reports of its projects.
Recent testing of a hypersonic glide body that circled the earth last October gave Washington and the Pentagon something equal to ultimate shock.
The missile test was successful, only missing its target by 24-miles off the nuclear-capable high-speed vehicle launched last August, as cited by the Financial Times.
These tests highlighted how Beijing had moved forward in its research in hypersonic technology showing the gaps in the US program when American scientists thought they had the lead.
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The average supersonic speed is 768 miles per hour, but hypersonic is fives time the speed of sound and a range of 1500 miles. This is the same technology used by Russia in its high-tech missile program.
China is in the new arms race to beat the US and the Allies, especially in the Indo-Pacific. A source that has ties to the PLA confirms the weapon is under research by the Academy of Aerospace Aerodynamics.
China announced most of its test launches, but they kept the August test under wraps and secret to the West. Defense experts say that there is no way current missile defenses or radar could stop or detect a raid by such an excellent weapon. The shock value of the NASA hypersonic nuclear missile engine is immense if it is finally perfected.
