Hypersonic refers to a flight speed that exceeds 5 times the speed of sound, and is usually expressed as a speed of Mach 5 and above. As early as the early 20th century, United States, Germany, the Soviet Union (Russia) and other countries began to carry out relevant research in the field of hypersonic technology. Tsien first proposed the concept of hypersonic in 1946.
Early development history
Austria engineer Sänger proposed the concept of a reusable, rocket-powered space plane "Silver Bird" (flight speed of Mach 10), and in 1933 perfected the technical route into a glider based on a liquid-fuel rocket engine, which could take off and land horizontally and fly at Mach 13; In 1944, Sänger proposed a rocket engine-powered bomber project, and the concept and ideas provided guidance for the subsequent development of hypersonic vehicles.
In the early 40s of the 20th century, Germany planned to build a hypersonic wind tunnel to simulate Mach 7-10, but it was discontinued. In 1949, the United States achieved the first hypersonic flight with a V-2 rocket; In 1957, a hypersonic wind tunnel was built United States Arnold Engineering Development Center, and in 1960 it successfully tested the Mach 15 flight of the rocket-powered test vehicle X-7, developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States, which was also the first aircraft to achieve hypersonic flight. In the mid-90s of the 20th century, the United States Air Force Scientific Advisory Board identified four key concepts of hypersonic - missiles, maneuvering reentry vehicles, rapid response/global vehicle systems, and space launch/support systems; The core research directions involved are aerothermodynamics, propulsion systems and fuels (hydrocarbons and liquid hydrogen), structures and materials, etc.
R&D trends in major countries
Hypersonic technology has dual-use characteristics and can be used in non-military fields such as space launches, spacecraft recovery, and passenger and cargo transportation, as well as being applied to the military field as a hypersonic weapon.
In the military field, hypersonic technology will enhance end-to-end precision strike capabilities, and high-mobility weapons launched at hypersonic speeds can evade virtually any defense system currently in use, enabling rapid response and global attacks. Hypersonic weapons have the characteristics of ultra-high speed, high damage, and high penetration capability, and have become the strategic commanding heights of the air-space military competition between major powers. In recent years, countries around the world have been exploring and actively deploying hypersonic technology, and have achieved corresponding results. For example, the United States Navy, Army, and Air Force are actively developing hypersonic missiles, and by developing hypersonic missile acceleration programs, significantly increased support and funding to help develop, test, and create units to deploy hypersonic weapons; Russia already has 3 sea, land and air hypersonic weapons, "Avangard", "Zircon" and "Dagger"; In 2020, the Defence Research and Development Organization of India announced the successful test of its self-developed hypersonic technology demonstration vehicle; In 2023, France successfully tested the V-MaX hypersonic missile, becoming the first country in Europe to master hypersonic technology; China is also actively developing and deploying hypersonic cruise missiles and hypersonic glide vehicles, while focusing on the development of long-range, reusable hypersonic experimental platforms with military and civilian applications.
The application of hypersonic technology in the field of civil aviation is still immature, and most of the research is still in the R&D or experimental stage. For example, in 2018 United States Boeing launched the concept of a hypersonic passenger aircraft and related technical solutions; United States's Hermeus and Stratolaunch and Australia's Hypersonix are actively developing hypersonic drones that can fly at speeds above Mach 5 and are planning flight tests. United Kingdom Aerion is developing all-electric and hybrid electric propulsion hypersonic civil aircraft. The StratoFly project, funded by the European Commission, designed a low-noise hydrogen-fueled hypersonic vehicle (StratoFly MR3) with a flight speed of Mach 4 to Mach. Russia is developing a hypersonic cargo drone powered by liquid hydrogen fuel, with a speed of Mach 15 and capable of flying around the world. China is also committed to making breakthroughs in "near-space" flight technology, and has continuously improved the mainland's research layout in related fields such as reusable, space-to-earth shuttle vehicles, and low-cost space-to-space shuttles relying on hypersonic technology. In addition, private aerospace companies represented by Lingkong Tianxing and Zero One Space are also actively focusing on the needs of aerospace technology, aiming at the suborbital flight market to carry out relevant research, and constantly approaching the goal of achieving commercial flight in "near space".
This paper focuses on the important research deployment and progress in the field of hypersonic in major countries such as United States and Russia, and excavates the current R&D pattern of each country/region through bibliometric methods, in order to provide reference for the mainland's policy formulation, future development planning, and R&D layout in this technology field.
Key research advances
The application of hypersonic technology mainly involves hypersonic vehicles, including cruise missiles and military aircraft, hypersonic passenger aircraft, and reusable aerospace aircraft capable of horizontal take-off and landing. The research and development of hypersonic technology is mainly focused on hypersonic weapons in the military field, such as ballistic missiles, hypersonic glide vehicles, hypersonic cruise missiles, etc.
Based on the bibliometric analysis of the publications in the field of hypersonic technology based on the Web of Science core collection database, it can be found that the first relevant paper in this field was published in 1946, which was Qian Xuesen's article "On the Similarity Law of Hypersonic Flow" published in the Journal of Mathematics and Physics, which gave the concept of hypersonic for the first time. From 1956 to 1990, the technology was in a slow development stage. Since 1991, the field has been growing rapidly and steadily (Figure 1, see Appendix 1 for related search strategies).
Figure 2 is the topic map of hypersonic technology from 1946 to 2023 constructed by VOSviewer, and a total of 6 keyword clusters have been formed. Power propulsion technology (green), including scramjet engines, combined cycle engines, fuel injection, turbulent combustion, etc. Guidance and control technology (blue), including sliding mode control, adaptive (fuzzy) control, trajectory optimization, fault-tolerant control, reentry guidance, etc. New materials and thermal protection technologies (yellow part), including thermal protection systems, mechanical properties, carbon-carbon compounds, ceramic matrix composites, silicon diboride carbides, etc. Hypersonic wind tunnel (light blue section), including hypersonic boundary layer, hydrodynamic stability, tunnel, etc. Aerodynamics (purple section), including aerodynamics, turbulence, Navier-Stokes equations, numerical simulations, hypersonic flow, and more. Hypersonic defense system (red part), including atmospheric reentry, plasma sheath, communications, radar monitoring, nuclear weapons, etc.
Based on the above measurement results and related literature research, it is considered that the development of hypersonic wind tunnel is to simulate the aerodynamic and thermodynamic environment during hypersonic flight, so as to serve the study of aerodynamic characteristics of hypersonic vehicles. Therefore, this paper summarizes the research content in the field of hypersonic technology into five aspects: power propulsion technology, guidance and control technology, new materials and thermal protection technology, hypersonic wind tunnel, and hypersonic defense system.
Power propulsion technology
Representative power propulsion technology. Including rocket power technology, scramjet engine technology, as well as pre-cooled engines, detonation engines, magnetic fluid engines and other new power propulsion technologies. Rocket power technology is the earliest and most widely used power technology, but the non-reusability of rocket power will cause the problem of high operating costs, so the development of reusable rocket launch technology, as well as solid fuel is the main development direction. The scramjet engine is one of the most desirable powerhouses for hypersonic vehicles. China successfully developed the world's first aviation kerosene regenerative cooling scramjet engine in 2020, and is the second country after United States to use scramjet in hypersonic vehicles and complete autonomous flight tests. Another promising propulsion technology is the Standing Oblique Detonation (SOD) engine. The engine adopts oblique detonation to replace the diffusion-based combustion in the burner of scramjet engine, which has the characteristics of high power density, short combustion chamber length and simple engine structure.
Combined engine technology. It is difficult for a single type of engine to meet the needs of hypersonic vehicles in large airspace, wide speed range and high-performance flight, and the combined engine has the advantages of high comprehensive performance and wide application range, and is also one of the ideal power units for hypersonic vehicles. Common combined power propulsion technologies include: rocket-based combined cycle power (RBCC), turbine-based combined cycle power (TBCC), air turbine rocket combined engine (ATR), etc. RBCC。 Representative engines in the United States include the Strutjet engine, the A5 engine, and the GTX RBCC engine. In 2022, the successful launch of the Feitian-1 developed by Continental verified for the first time the ability of the kerosene-fueled RBCC to smoothly transition in multiple modes such as rocket/sub-combustion, sub-combustion, scramification, and rocket/scramification. TBCC。 It is composed of a gas turbine engine and a sub/scramjet engine, which has the advantage of high specific impulse in the Mach 0-3 range. United States representative engines include RTA turbo accelerator, FRE engine, Falcon combined cycle engine (FaCET), and "triple jet" combined cycle turbojet engine; The typical engines in the EU are the Scimitar engine and the Sabre engine. Continental has developed a turbo-assisted rocket-enhanced ramjet combined cycle engine (TRRE) and has completed the verification of the components of the prototype and the transition and steady-state direct-connection of the entire engine. ATR, which can use a variety of fuel systems, can enable aircraft to take off and land horizontally on the runway. United States and Japan have carried out key research in this field, and have carried out test studies and related demonstration work for many times; China is also actively carrying out relevant research in this field, but no experimental comparative studies of ATR engines have been published.
Guidance and control technology
Compared with traditional aircraft, hypersonic vehicles face problems such as a more complex flight environment, large flight envelope cross-domain, and limited understanding of changes in aerodynamic characteristics, which put forward more stringent requirements for the design of control systems, so hypersonic control is a cutting-edge problem in aircraft control. Based on the control method of structured singular value theory, Li et al. designed a controller that can be used for hypersonic vehicles, and successfully proved that the controller has excellent command orbit performance in simulation experiments. Flight Mach number control is one of the important control tasks of hypersonic cruise aircraft. Zhu et al. designed a robust Mach number controller based on air-breathing hypersonic cruise vehicle, and verified the good performance of the controller in the Mach number control system through simulation experiments. Wang et al. considered the key issues related to supersonic combustion stamping test, such as attitude establishment and linear control concept of hypersonic vehicle, and proposed an attitude control system for unmanned hypersonic test vehicle, in which the robust controller was designed using a hybrid sensitivity method.
During hypersonic flight, the highly dynamic plasma sheath around the vehicle degrades the quality of communication. As the flight parameters change, the attenuation effect of the plasma sheath on electromagnetic waves weakens for a short time, resulting in a "communication window", but the required parameters for the emergence of this window are random. In this regard, Zhang et al. proposed a Short Frame Fountain Code (SFFC), successfully constructed a time-varying plasma sheath channel model, and verified the SFFC to improve the reliability of communication through the plasma sheath through simulation experiments. In 2022, China successfully developed a "Plasma Electromagnetic Science Experimental Research Device for High-Speed Targets in Near Space", which solves the problem of communication under the plasma sheath (black barrier). With the application of this achievement in hypersonic weapons and vehicles, the accuracy and efficiency of command and control and terminal maneuvering will be greatly improved.
Fault-tolerant control of hypersonic vehicles is a key issue that needs to be studied. Lu et al. designed a powerful fault-tolerant H∞static feedback controller for actuator failure problems. Wang et al. proposed an adaptive fault-tolerant control strategy based on the actual finite time active module method for the actuator obstacle of air-breathing hypersonic vehicles, and the effectiveness of the strategy was verified by simulation experiments. Based on the time-varying slip mode method, Ji et al. designed an attitude controller for a hypersonic vehicle with actuator failure. Through experimental simulations, it was found that the hypersonic vehicle could still fly along the reference trajectory when the actuator of a particular channel was completely jammed.
The development of online and real-time trajectory optimization algorithms is crucial for the entry guidance algorithms of hypersonic vehicles, and artificial intelligence (AI)-based guidance algorithms have attracted much attention in the aerospace field in recent years. In December 2022, Roberto · Fofaro, a professor at the University of Arizona in United States, received a $4.5 million grant sponsored by the Universities for Applied Hypersonic Universities to develop guidance, navigation, and control systems for AI-driven hypersonic autonomous vehicles.
New materials and thermal protection technologies
Hypersonic vehicles should be able to cope with a more severe thermal environment, that is, the surface of the aircraft will not be ablated under long-term heating, and the shape and structure of the aircraft will not be deformed.
In the research process of new materials for hypersonic vehicles, organic composites, metal matrix composites and ceramic matrix composites have always been the focus of research. Ultra-high temperature ceramics (UHTC) are group IV and V transition metal carbides, nitrides, and borides, and UHTC is considered to be suitable for manufacturing or protecting components in extreme operating environments such as high-temperature nuclear reactors and hypersonic flights. In 2018, scientists from the University of London in United Kingdom successfully prepared a high-entropy ultra-high temperature ceramic carbide. In October 2022, scientists at Duke University in United States designed a high-entropy transition metal carbide (PHECs) with tunable plasma properties that are hard enough to stir molten steel and can withstand temperatures above 7000°F. In 2024, scientists from South China University of Technology successfully prepared a porous high-entropy diboride ceramic with super mechanical load-bearing capacity and high thermal insulation performance, which can withstand high temperatures up to 2000 °C, 337 MPa at room temperature, and 690 MPa at 2000°C. In addition, refractory diboride composites such as zirconium diboride and hafnium diboride, carbon-based composites such as carbon phenolic and graphite, and carbon/carbon composites such as silicon carbide and boron carbide have also proved to be the most promising ultra-high temperature materials.
Thermal protection systems (TPS) can be divided into passive TPS, active TPS and semi-covered/active TPS from the protection concept. Passive TPS, more carbon/carbon-based, ceramic-based, metal-based and other composite materials; Active TPS, mostly metal materials; Semi-quilted/active TPS, including heat pipes and ablators, different types of materials need to be selected according to the structure, heat pipes are selected with high-temperature resistant metal heat pipes, carbon/carbon or ceramic matrix composites, and ablative materials are mostly used for ablers.
Long-flying hypersonic vehicles will cause the typical service temperature and total heat to far exceed those of existing aircraft, but traditional design methods are difficult to meet the requirements of rapidly increasing thermal loads. On the one hand, the design of multi-functional coupled heat-resistant materials such as multi-physical heat protection, thin layer lightweight, stealth, and reusable is the focus of future research. On the other hand, multi-mechanism coupling thermal protection technologies such as semi-active, semi-active/active, and active will become the main development direction.
Hypersonic wind tunnel
By generating a hypersonic flow field, a hypersonic wind tunnel simulates the typical flow characteristics of the flow regime, including the flow field in the stagnation zone, compressive shock waves and high-speed boundary layer transitions, entropy layers and viscous interaction zones, and high temperatures. The hypersonic wind tunnel can simulate the environment and conditions of high-altitude and high-speed flight to analyze the aerodynamic data of ballistic missiles, hypersonic vehicles, space launchers, etc. during hypersonic flight, and is a key test device for related research in the field of hypersonic technology.
The key problem in hypersonic wind tunnel research is how to heat the test gas to simulate the total temperature of the air flow under hypersonic flight conditions, the gas flow velocity, and to overcome the size effect to obtain a sufficiently large flow field. Hypersonic wind tunnels can be divided into four types according to the driving mode: direct heating drive, heated light gas drive, free piston drive, and detonation drive. In 2023, China successfully developed a "detonation-driven hypervelocity high-enthalpy shock wave wind tunnel" (JF-22 hypervelocity wind tunnel) that can simulate a hypersonic flight environment of up to Mach 30, marking a new level of hypersonic technology in China.
Hypersonic defense system
Hypersonic weapons have a wide flight range, with high-altitude reconnaissance, high-speed penetration, long-range precision strikes and other capabilities; Because of its fast flight speed, it puts forward higher requirements for the rapid response and quick decision-making of the defense system of the defending party. It is difficult for the existing air defense and anti-missile system to accurately identify the aircraft flying at hypersonic speed, so it is of great significance for the future aerospace defense system to carry out research on trajectory prediction, timely detection, identification and observation, and continuous tracking of hypersonic vehicles.
The existing research focuses on building a multi-directional and multi-means monitoring system that integrates land, sea, air and space. At the same time, it focuses on terminal interception technology, the development of new interceptor missiles, and the selection of high-energy laser weapons and electronic jamming technology as alternatives. Zhang Junbiao et al. proposed an intelligent trajectory prediction method for hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) based on ensemble empirical mode decomposition and attention long short-term memory network, which can effectively predict the maneuver trajectory of HGV. Yuan et al. proposed an unsupervised classification algorithm based on the accurate identification of the flight state of hypersonic targets based on hyperspectral features, which can find and lock hypersonic vehicles in near space. Based on the different maneuvering configurations of interceptors and hypersonic vehicles, Liu et al. established three interception scenarios to study the influence of each factor on interception performance in the three interception scenarios.
The global hypersonic technology R&D landscape
Analysis of the main issuing countries
Figure 3 shows the publication of papers in the top 10 countries in the field of hypersonic technology over the years (statistical time from 1991 to 2023). China and the United States are the most important issuing countries, and the United States has a significant advantage in the early days (before 2006); Since 2006, when China issued the Outline of the National Medium and Long-term Science and Technology Development Plan (2006-2020), which identified major projects for large aircraft and hypersonic aircraft science and technology projects as 16 major science and technology projects, and in 2007, when the State Council executive meeting approved the formal approval of major science and technology projects for the development of large aircraft, the number of papers published in this field began to grow rapidly, and exceeded United States for the first time in 2010, and has been in a leading position ever since.
United States. At present, the United States believes that it is already in a backward position in hypersonic missile technology, and the United States Department of Defense (DOD) has elevated the development of hypersonic technology and weapons to a strategic level that determines victory or defeat, and has continuously issued strategic plans to guide and promote the development of hypersonic technology. In 2021, in order to meet the challenges posed by high-end systems such as hypersonic weapon systems, DOD formulated a comprehensive strategy focusing on three research directions: offensive hypersonic capabilities, the development and deployment of layered systems for defense against hypersonic systems, and reusable hypersonic systems. In February 2022, hypersonic technology was listed as a key and emerging technology in the updated version of the "List of Key and Emerging Technologies" released by the United States State Science and Technology Commission. In April, the RAND Corporation of United States released the report "Disruptive Deterrence: A Study on the Impact of Strategic Deterrence Technology in the 21st Century" listed hypersonic weapons as one of the eight major technologies; In October, the United States released its National Defense Strategy and Missile Defense Review Report, emphasizing that it will continue to develop a combination of active and passive defense systems to counter hypersonic missile threats, as well as develop sensing networks that can identify and track all hypersonic threats. Under the DOD's FY 2024 budget request, $29.8 billion will be requested to enhance missile shootdown and defense, including technology and demonstration of cyber operations and hypersonic strike capabilities; $11 billion for the provision of a wide range of high-lethal precision weapons, including the development, testing and procurement of hypersonic weapons. In addition, the United States Congress approved $225 million in additional funding to deploy "no less than 24" gliding stage interceptors by the end of 2040. United States is developing a variety of hypersonic weapons, including rocket-powered Tactical Boost-Glide missiles (TBG), hypersonic cruise missiles (HAWC), hypersonic air-launched cruise missiles (HALO), and building hypersonic flight test platforms through the Hypersonic and Hypertempo Airborne Test Capability (HyCAT) program; At the same time, the research of hypersonic aircraft has been accelerated, such as the release of the "Valkyrie" hypersonic UAV model design drawing, the "Stargazer" hypersonic aircraft concept map, and the completion of the "Quarterhorse" hypersonic aircraft engine ground test.
Russia. Previously, Russia's related work in the field of hypersonic has been in a state of secret research and development, and relevant research results have been published since 2018. Russia is the first country in the world to produce and install hypersonic cruise missiles, and has mainly developed three types of hypersonic missiles - "Pioneer" hypersonic intercontinental ballistic missile, "Zircon" cruise missile and "Dagger" hypersonic air-launched ballistic missile, and all of them are officially in service. In order to ensure air and space superiority, the Ministry of Defense of Russia, on the one hand, continues to promote the construction of hypersonic missile projects, the research and development of the X-95 new long-range hypersonic missile has made great progress, and the missile is included in the long-range aviation strike system equipment, "Pixie" hypersonic air-launched missile, "Sharp" airborne small hypersonic missile, "Serpentine" anti-ship ballistic missile, "KH-95" long-range hypersonic air-launched strategic cruise missile, etc. are in the development and testing stage. On the other hand, we will continue to strengthen the improvement and development of the existing hypersonic strike system, and continue to introduce new nuclear submarines, such as the development of a "future long-range strategic bomber" that can carry hypersonic weapons, and the modernization and upgrading of the "Akula" and "Oscar" class nuclear submarines that can launch "Zircon" hypersonic missiles. Russia continues to promote the testing and deployment of a new generation of air-space joint defense systems, and major progress has been made in anti-satellite and anti-hypersonic systems such as S-500 and S-550. In addition, Russia is also actively developing hypersonic blocking rifle bullets, and has begun testing hypersonic sniper bullets that can eventually reach speeds of more than 1500 m / s.
China. China's research in the field of hypersonic started late, and with the release of relevant policies and plans, the development of hypersonic technology has been continuously promoted, and the relevant technical problems in the research process of hypersonic vehicles have been basically solved or preliminarily solved. The ability to manufacture and deploy hypersonic vehicles in China is developing rapidly, and the relevant hypersonic research and development achievements include DF-5 intercontinental ballistic missile, DF-17 hypersonic ballistic missile, "Star-2" wave-riding body hypersonic vehicle, "YJ-21" hypersonic anti-ship missile, etc.
Australia, Japan, Germany, Israel, Korea, etc. They have formulated policies and plans to actively explore the development of related technologies in the field of hypersonic speed.
Major Funding Agencies
Figure 4 shows the number of papers and the influence of the main funding institutions of hypersonic technology (the impact is reflected by the citation frequency of the funded papers).
In terms of the number of papers, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) is the largest funding agency in this field, with 2,803 papers funded by the NSFC, accounting for 48.7% of the total number of papers in the top 20 funding institutions. Based on the major needs of national aerospace security, NSFC launched major research programs related to aerospace vehicles in 2002 and 2007 respectively to guide China's basic research work in the field of hypersonic technology.
In terms of influence, the top two institutions in the United Kingdom are the United Kingdom Research and Innovation Agency (UKRI, influence 25.28) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council of the United Kingdom (EPSRC, influence 25.99). UKRI includes 9 research organizations including EPSRC; The EPSRC has set up a total of nine sector groups, with a total of 198 projects in the aerospace, defence and marine sectors currently being funded (as of 31 May 2024) with a funding value of nearly £520 million. Under the UKRI Infrastructure Fund 2022-2025, UKRI plans to invest £52 million over eight years in the development of the National Wind Tunnel (NWTF+). In addition, the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence's 2023 updated Defence Science and Technology Portfolio said it would invest at least £6.6 billion in defence scientific research projects, the 17th of which is research and development of future hypersonic concepts and technologies.
Six of the top 20 funding agencies in the United States have been actively working with the United States Department of Energy, NASA and universities on the development of hypersonic weapons and technologies since DOD launched the National Aerospace Initiative (NAI). United States investment in hypersonic technology has been on the rise - the US military's hypersonic technology research and development spending will reach $5.126 billion in 2023, and the hypersonic technology budget in 2024 will be $5.049 billion.
Discussion and outlook
Hypersonic technology is regarded by many countries as a new commanding heights in the field of military science and technology, civil aviation, and an important tool for future great power games, which may redefine the rules of war. Countries around the world continue to increase R&D efforts in this field, and have introduced relevant policies and plans to promote the development of this technology. In this regard, three suggestions for Continental in the field of hypersonic technology in the future are proposed.
Pay attention to the formulation of relevant policies and plans, as well as the continuity of the technical direction and funding methods of key funding. Taking the United States as an example, the United States is one of the earliest countries to develop in this field, and due to the continuous adjustment of relevant policy planning, its development in this field has been repeated. Therefore, it is suggested that the relevant policy plans should be issued to clarify the priority development of the mainland in the field of hypersonic technology. At the same time, relying on the National Natural Science Foundation of China, major national science and technology projects, and the establishment of joint fund projects, etc., to ensure that research in the field of hypersonic has received continuous funding.
Improve the layout of hypersonic technology in five aspects. Power propulsion technology, guidance and control technology, new materials and thermal protection technology are hot research directions in the field of hypersonic technology, so the development of the above related research can be promoted by setting up major scientific and technological tasks to overcome the technical challenges faced by the deployment of hypersonic weapons, such as high-speed propulsion systems, reusable technologies, extreme high temperatures, and material properties. Accelerating the construction of a defense system for the continuous enhancement of hypersonic weapons, equipping hypersonic defense systems and space sensors with more flexibility, high survivability and low cost is the key direction that needs to be paid attention to. Major countries in the world are also actively engaged in the research and development of hypersonic weapon defense systems. For example, in 2022, Russia successfully tested a new missile defense system, which is already in service with the Aerospace Forces and is designed to defend against air and space attacks such as hypersonic weapons; United States will also prioritize building a defense architecture to counter hypersonic weapons from adversaries. Focus on the construction of hypersonic ground test and flight test capacity, and rely on the ability of constantly updated and upgraded ground test facilities and flight test platforms to build a continental hypersonic technology development ecology. Aircraft flying at hypersonic speeds could form a new commercial point-to-point transportation market on Earth. It is suggested that the mainland should accelerate the exploration of the application of hypersonic technology in the civilian field, develop reusable hypersonic vehicles, and realize the independent and controllable core technologies and supply chains of related technologies. At present, there are no multilateral or bilateral treaties on the use of hypersonic weapons, so the conclusion of relevant international agreements on joint air defense and missile defense is also a focus for the future.
Accelerate the transformation of relevant research results into practical applications. Continental has made continuous breakthroughs in scramjet engines, hypersonic wind tunnels, guidance and control technologies, and has also made rich research achievements in the research and development of new high-temperature resistant materials. In the future, it is necessary to adopt methods such as setting up an achievement transformation fund, encouraging R&D institutions and enterprises to form an innovative research community, and building relevant scientific research tasks around industrial needs to build an innovative development path of industry-university-research collaboration in the field of hypersonic to improve the efficiency of the transformation of research results from the laboratory to the market, and continuously enhance the mainland's independent research capabilities in the field of hypersonic speed.
(Authors: Huang Xiaorong and Zhou Haichen, Chengdu Literature and Information Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Yunwei Chen, Chengdu Library and Information Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, School of Economics and Management, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. Contributed by Bulletin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences)