Chinese Scientists Have Created a Revolutionary Oblique Detonation Engine for Flights at a Speed of Mach 16**

 

Chinese scientists have created the world's first jet fuel engine for flight at a speed of Mach 16 

They have successfully tested the world's first oblique detonation engine powered by aviation kerosene, which could be a potential breakthrough in the field of hypersonic engines.

In a series of experiments in the JF-12 tube in Beijing, which simulates flight conditions with high Mach velocity at an altitude of more than 40 km, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have achieved stable oblique detonation waves using RP-3 jet fuel, ordinary commercial kerosene.

The results indicate a combustion rate 1,000 times higher than that of ramjet engines, with an operating capacity in the range of Mach 6 to Mach 16, a speed at which conventional air jet engines cannot cope.

Engineers have discovered that by placing a 5mm protrusion on the wall of the combustion chamber, they can trigger self-sustaining "detonation diamonds" — ultrafast explosions triggered by a shock wave — that complete combustion in microseconds.

At a speed of Mach 9, tests revealed pressure surges at the detonation points reaching 20 times the ambient level, which indicates the engine's ability to generate significant thrust in the speed range, where most hypersonic ramjet engines could hardly "breathe."