Chinese scientists build world’s first jet fuel-powered engine for Mach 16 flight

As the need for speed grows, researchers have developed an engine that uses standard aviation kerosene to travel up to 20,000km/h

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Chinese researchers have developed an engine that uses standard aviation kerosene to travel up to Mach 16, which could be a game-changer in hypersonic flight. Photo: Chinese Academy of Sciences

Published: 4:00pm, 26 Feb 2025Updated: 5:27pm, 27 Feb 2025

The world’s first oblique detonation engine (ODE) powered by standard aviation kerosene has been successfully tested by Chinese scientists, marking a potential game-changer in hypersonic propulsion that could redefine the limits of air and space travel.

In a series of groundbreaking experiments at Beijing’s JF-12 shock tunnel, which simulates high-Mach flight conditions in altitudes of over 40km (25 miles), researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) achieved sustained oblique detonation waves using RP-3 jet fuel, a common commercial kerosene.

The results, published in China’s Journal of Experiments in Fluid Mechanics, suggest combustion rates 1,000 times faster than traditional scramjet engines, with operational capability between Mach 6 and Mach 16 – a speed where conventional air-breathing engines falter.

Unlike scramjets, which require bulky combustion chambers and struggle with flame-out risks at high Mach speeds, the ODE harnesses shock waves as allies.

By strategically positioning a 5mm bump on the combustor wall, engineers found they could induce self-sustaining “detonation diamonds” – ultra-fast shock wave-fuelled explosions – that completed combustion in microseconds.

“The shock wave compresses and ignites the fuel-air mix so violently that it creates a self-reinforcing explosion front,” wrote the team led by Han Xin, lead researcher of the project with the CAS Institute of Mechanics.

At Mach 9, the tests revealed pressure spikes at detonation points reaching 20 times that of ambient levels, suggesting the engine was capable of generating a considerable thrust in a speed region where most scramjets could hardly breathe.