Chinese scientists can now reportedly have developed new simulation software that can reduce scramjet engine modelling from years to just weeks. If true, this could prove ground-breaking for accelerating research into things like hypersonic missiles.
At present, scramjet engine development is one of the hardest engineering problems to solve, so any boost to that will be very useful indeed.
In case you are unaware, scramjets (supersonic combustion ramjets) are designed to enable air to enter the engine at hypersonic speeds. Such engines typically use shockwaves to compress air (not turbines), and fuel is burned while the engine is moving at supersonic speeds.
According to reports, it is this last element that is typically the hardest to solve for. In more…