This aircraft is the most advanced aircraft ever built by mankind. It is the product of a high degree of integration of space technology and the basic unit for countries around the world to compete for control of space in the 21st century.
Before this event, the only country in the world capable of building passenger aircraft was the United States of America. The US-developed X37B can even fly in orbit for 908 days, almost three years. and conducted a series of secret space test missions. But that's just a thing of the past. Now China also has its own aircraft.
Just last August, the mainland also launched a reusable test spacecraft at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center using a Long March 2F carrier rocket. And this spacecraft is a Chinese passenger plane.
In fact, this is the second test flight of a Chinese airliner. Everyone should know about the first test flight. At that time, the Chinese military industry also released a video. However, the video content only has three lines of text and background music, and there are no images at all. In addition, the Chinese military industry also contributed a classic meme in the comment area: too advanced to show.
Continental had already achieved aircraft recyclability by the time it conducted its first tests. But recyclability is only the first step. Only when the repaired aircraft can fly again will it be considered used again after the experiment is completed. According to reports, when Continental launched the aircraft, it was called leapfrog development.
Another question is, what can the Chinese-developed aircraft be used for? First of all, and the first and most important role is that the aircraft itself is a platform with a very wide range of applications. From the models and concept drawings related to the Tengyun project, it can be seen that Continental has revealed that Continental is using two-class aircraft. A rocket-like two-stage high-thrust spaceplane is used to send the first stage spacecraft into space for low-Earth orbit missions.
Whether it is a second-tier or first-line aircraft, it can eventually be reused. This means that in the future, on the basis of Tier 1 aircraft, we can derive a number of aircraft with lower requirements and possibly civil use, such as hypersonic passenger aircraft, hypersonic transport aircraft, hypersonic reconnaissance aircraft and suborbital tactical aircraft. After that, sci-fi spacecraft such as orbital bombers and even space carriers will be developed based on second-stage airships, with higher flight speeds, higher material requirements and higher endurance.
This means that the traditional rules of the game for human space exploration in the past have been completely changed.
Compared to conventional rockets, the aircraft used a new concept of a combined cycle engine. During the atmospheric flight phase, there is no need to consume oxidants, and the large amount of oxygen present in the atmosphere can be directly utilized. At this stage, the equivalent specific impulse of an aero engine can easily reach more than 1,000 seconds, or even more than 6,000 seconds. In contrast, the equivalent specific impulse of a rocket engine in the atmosphere may be only 300 to 400 seconds. That is, if you want a rocket to break through the third cosmic speed, you need a lot of fuel. As for the threshold that human technology can currently reach, the weight of a human rocket plus the weight of the equipment is now about 10% of the takeoff weight, and the rest is all kinds of propellants.
Then according to the above calculations, if the aircraft uses the same amount of fuel as the rocket, the equivalent specific impulse will be 2.5 times that of the rocket. Of course, the aircraft does not need as much equivalent specific impulse, so most of the weight originally provided for fuel can be replaced by equipment or equipment carried by the aircraft itself. If compared to the most energy-efficient rockets that humans can currently build. Thus, a rocket needs an average of 46 tons of propellant to send a ton of material into space, while a passenger aircraft needs only 20 tons of propellant to accomplish the same task.
In addition to the advantages of saving energy, another advantage is that there is no need to build additional transmission towers.
Whether it's a rocket or a space shuttle, launching something so big, a launch tower is essential. One of the most classic is the mainland Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Oh, and the Kennedy Space Center in the United States is also a miracle for mankind. But this also leads to a lack of flexibility. If the space center is destroyed, humanity will not be able to launch any space equipment.
But when the aircraft launch technology matures, there is no need for a tower at all, as long as it is on the runway. China's highways themselves are actually designed to aircraft standards and can also act as airports in case of emergency. That is, if it is necessary or necessary to launch a large spacecraft in a short time, it is not impossible to take off directly on the highway. This will significantly reduce the requirements for comfort and start-up. And this is the basic threshold for the transition of aviation from a state project to everyday civilian technology.
Imagine thirty or forty years from now. In addition to scheduled domestic flights, the airport will also add routes. Through the glass of the terminal, you can see the planes outside. The plane is ready to take off on the runway. Just thinking about such a scene gives people goosebumps.
Such a scene is not a fantasy. The mainland has long emphasized the leapfrog development of the science and technology industry. At present, the electromagnetic catapult, the second-generation all-electric propulsion system, the dual-pulse engine and the "airspace" that are currently vigorously developed by the mainland are all products of "leapfrog development". Some of these technologies are created from scratch, directly approaching the high-end technology level of the United States, and some even directly surpass the United States, making the American PPT directly a reality. So I think we will definitely see such a magnificent sight in our lifetime.