China successfully tests hypersonic aircraft, maybe at Mach 12

America recently extended tech export bans specifically to stop Beijing building this sort of thing

China’s Northwestern Polytechnical University last week flew a hypersonic craft and claimed the test achieved some world-first feats.

The University named the craft “Feitian-2” and according to Chinese media the test flight saw it reach Mach 12 (14,800 km/h or 9,200 mph) – handily faster than the Mach 5 speeds considered to represent hypersonic flight.

Chinese media have not detailed the size of Feitian-2, or its capabilities other than to remark that it combined a rocket and a ramjet into a single unit.

Readers will be familiar with rockets, which carry fuel and oxidizers that ignite to blast out torrents of hot gas to produce thrust. Ramjets carry only fuel because they instead rely on air rushing into a jet engine, where it becomes compressed and acts as the oxidizer.

Combining a ...