Chapter 131 - 127 WC09 Test Flight_1

Gobi Desert, Desert Base.

A H-6H bomber was positioned for takeoff, beneath its belly hung an odd object.

The front half was a small triangular wing-shaped aircraft that housed a WCR09 combined-cycle engine, a fuel tank, and a simple control system.

After the first WCR09 combined-cycle engine was completed, following the military’s strong insistence, New Yuan did not conduct its test flight, but instead transferred it to the Desert Base, where researchers designed a small aircraft body for testing.

The Triangular Aircraft codenamed W-1 was a pure validation machine, created solely to test if the performance of the WCR09 met standards.

For simplicity, it even had a disposable landing gear that could not be used for takeoff. It would extend two skids for landing and after wear, they could simply be replaced.

After all, it was meant to validate a craft flying at 10 times the speed of sound, and making a proper landing gear would be troublesome—it was easier to skip that for the time being.

It was already January by then, but it was not yet time for a break at the Desert Base. Lin Ju stood in the warm control room, where monitoring data from various sources on W-1 was gathered.

With the test command issued, the H-6H taxied and took off, flying to an altitude of 12,000 meters above the central area of the northwestern desert. The operator pressed the button, the explosive bolts on the mount holding W-1 broke off, releasing W-1 into the drop.

The turbofan section of the WCR09 immediately started up, providing 9 tons of thrust for the W-1, which weighed less than 5 tons, excessively abundant. With afterburners engaged, it broke through Mach 2 in just a few minutes, and its speed was still climbing.

Simultaneously, the altitude of W-1 kept rising; at Mach 2.8, it reached an altitude of 30,000 meters, and there was still power to spare—it kept climbing.

In the end, when the turbofan reached its limit, W-1 had ascended to an altitude of 43,000 meters, at a speed of Mach 3.13!

Desert Base experienced the advanced technology of the WCR09 for the first time—it was a turbofan not a turbojet, capable of working normally at an altitude of 40,000 meters, where normal aviation engines would have long flamed out.

Although the thrust was low, such high-altitude and high-speed performance was indeed made for aero-space planes.

Subsequently, the ramjet section indicated that the conditions for activation were met, and the ground control immediately commanded the switch to hypersonic mode.

Inside the intake duct of the WCR09, the movable partitions sealing off the ramjet section slowly folded down, the turbofan engine began reducing its thrust, and high-speed thin air surged into the ramjet intake, decelerating through the bell-shaped inlet but still exceeding the speed of sound.

In the combustion chamber, atomized composite fuel was sprayed out, then ignited.

With an explosive detonation, the scramjet was successfully ignited!

The intake of the turbofan engine completely shut down, and at this point, the thrust was fully provided by the ramjet.

The ground control did not increase the engine power to maximum immediately, because W-1 did not have that much fuel—acceleration had to be gradual.

From Mach 3.2 to Mach 6, the WCR09 took only 40 seconds, propelled by the scramjet!

The airflow velocity kept increasing, yet these ferocious currents became manageable after passing through the simple yet extremely precisely designed inlet, finally entering the combustion chamber where they mixed with fuel and ignited to produce thrust.

The principle of a ramjet is actually very simple: it’s just an air duct, with a fuel nozzle inserted in the middle, an igniter, and that’s it.

Air enters, fuel is injected, ignition occurs, and thrust is generated—quite straightforward.

Conventional jet engines need the air intake to slow the airflow to subsonic speeds, with compressor blades slowing it down layer by layer to stabilize the air pressure and flow in the combustion chamber for ignition to generate thrust. A ramjet needs none of that—it’s just a duct.

The difference lies only in the design of the duct’s air intake and the combustion chamber. By changing the angle of the air intake, various types such as rotational detonation ramjets and subsonic combustion ramjets can be created. Isn’t it amazing?

But even such a simple design represented endless nights and days of fluid dynamics simulations by the supercomputer. Under hypersonic airflow, any minuscule change could have a profound impact on the engine’s operating conditions.

Of course, there was also the immense noise when the scramjet engine operated.

Over the lands of Xinjiang and Mongolia, people heard a thunderous roar from the sky. It was the sound of the W-1 break the barrier of eight times the speed of sound, producing strong shockwaves that carried down to the ground.

Even at altitudes over forty thousand meters, people on the ground could feel their ears buzzing.

Curiously looking up, they watched for a while until an orange and white bright spot appeared, trailing a long white contrail across the sky, drawing a curved line before the trail dispersed into a spiral.

At the Desert Base, Dou Ping slapped his own face hard:

"The adiabatic layer must have failed. W-1 is finished!"

The researchers on the ground rushed out of the control room and also saw the W-1, now out of control and turning into a shooting star.

It would ultimately crash at a high velocity somewhere in the desert, becoming a pile of debris.

Guo Shen adjusted his glasses:

"It’s likely the sled’s seams were poorly handled and overheated. It’s normal for W-1’s design to be rushed. What was the final normal flight speed?"

"Let me check... 47,700 meters, speed... Mach 10.6! Holy moly!"

Dou Ping exclaimed in surprise as he looked at the final data obtained.

Without relying on rockets, the super-fueled scramjet engine flew beyond Mach 10!

The other researchers were also extremely shocked. The performance goals of WCR09 were high, but nobody expected it to be this fierce on its maiden flight. This was the real powerhouse brick!

Guo Shen, however, seemed unsurprised:

"Then Xuehu can enter formal design. Since you all are in charge of the body design, we’ll take care of the air intake. I’ve got some ideas about the Aero-Space Plane now, perhaps we can integrate the rocket part as well."

Dou Ping shook his head, "You at New Yuan really are excessively bold. We’re planning to use a triangular body for Xuehu, with four engines on the underside. How about that?"

"That’s your business, as long as the WCR09 tests go well, my task is pretty much complete. By the way, what about the materials? W-1 used the same coating as missile warheads, and if Xuehu uses that, you won’t be able to afford the costs."

"No idea."

Dou Ping was blunt because near-space vehicles are also within atmospheric flight vehicles. If they were to use thermal tiles like the space shuttle, it would be too troublesome and expensive, so they still had to follow the traditional skin route.

The base’s current material selection was between titanium alloy and high-grade stainless steel, but Russia is a big producer and resource country for titanium alloy, and China doesn’t have as much. The difficulty of high-grade stainless steel is not far off from that of titanium alloy. They would be grateful if they could figure it out within a year.

Guo Shen did not speak, but he had some ideas.

The H2 Space Shuttle was ready to abandon the route of attaching thermal tiles and instead integrate the tiles with the fuselage to meet a lifespan of at least 100 take-offs and landings, and New Yuan was still working hard on the development.

This whole new integrated skin design could also be used in the Aero-Space Plane. Whether the Desert Base would have it figured out by then was not yet certain.

A few days later, news of unidentified flying objects and meteors being spotted in the western regions appeared in various places. The spokesperson claimed the government had no knowledge of such events, but America suspected these were missile tests.