BEIJING: China has announced it is building the world’s fastest wind tunnel to develop a new generation of super-fast aeroplanes, but it could also be used for hypersonic missile technology.

Wind tunnels test how air will pass over a solid object, helping designers improve aerodynamics or reduce stress points for objects as they reach high speeds.

State-run Xinhua news agency ran a report late Monday revealing the development of what it said would be “the world’s fastest hypersonic wind tunnel”.

“The 265-metre-long tunnel can be used to test hypersonic aircraft that can travel at speeds of up to Mach 25 (30,625 kph), 25 times the speed of sound,” Han Guilai, a researcher with China’s State Key Laboratory of High Temperature Gas Dynamics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was quoted as saying.

To compare, the current fastest generation of fighter jets can travel up to speeds of around 2.5 Mach.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2018