JF-22 in China is now the world’s most powerful hypersonic wind tunnel

For the past five years, construction has been afoot at the Institute of Mechanics facility in the mountainous Huairou district of northern Beijing. On May 30, the final evaluation confirmed that China had built the world’s most powerful wind tunnel, significantly boosting its ambitions for other hypersonic technology, the South China Morning Post reported. Hypersonic- referring to travel at five times the speed of sound (Mach 5) is an area of interest for both military and civilian applications. A race for building hypersonic weapons has been ongoing between nations for the past few years, and experts have said that China…