Chinese researchers have developed a smart flight control system that suppresses dangerous vibrations, allowing a flying-wing aircraft to fly 62.5 per cent faster and setting a world record. The breakthrough by a team from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Beijing Institute of Technology could enable China’s next-generation stealth bomber to combine stealth with supersonic speed.
For decades, aircraft designers faced a brutal choice: build a stealthy bomber that’s slow, or a fast bomber that’s easy to see. The iconic, bat-winged U.S. B-2 Spirit exemplifies the first path—supremely stealthy but subsonic. Russia’s Tu-160 “White Swan” represents the second—blazingly fast but not stealthy. Now, a Chinese technological breakthrough suggests the era of that compromise may be over.
The problem is a phenomenon called rigid-elastic coupled flutter. In the sleek, tailless flying-wing design optimal for stealth, long wings can begin to bend and shake violently at high speeds, risking catastrophic structural failure. To avoid this, aircraft like the B-2 are speed-capped. Published in the top journal Applied Mechanics Reviews, the new study offers a solution. Professor Huang Rui from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Professor Hu Haiyan from Beijing Institute of Technology developed an active suppression system that acts like a smart guardian for the wings.
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“This technology improves the safe flight speed by 62.5 per cent, setting a world record in this field,” declared Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in a press release. The system doesn’t require physical modifications. Instead, as Professor Huang explained to Jiangsu News, it uses the aircraft’s own sensors to monitor flight data in real-time and make micro-adjustments to airflow, damping vibrations before they can escalate. “If a certain aircraft model can currently fly at Mach 0.5, with our technology, its speed could be increased to Mach 0.7, and its structure would become more stable,” he said.
The research, reported by the South China Morning Post, was the culmination of a 10-year effort involving new theoretical models, custom-built simulation software, and flight tests on a specially designed drone. The result overturns a long-held aerodynamic doctrine. Military analysts note this paves the way for a new generation of bombers that are both stealthy and fast, a combination that would drastically enhance survivability and strike capability against modern air defenses.
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The implications for China’s long-anticipated stealth bomber, often referred to as the H-20, are significant. Believed to mirror the B-2’s flying-wing shape for maximum stealth, the H-20 was presumed to be subsonic. This new technology challenges that assumption. Integrating this active flutter suppression system could allow it to achieve supersonic dash speeds, creating a “third path” that merges the key strengths of both American and Russian design philosophies.
This breakthrough is more than an academic record; it’s a potential paradigm shift in strategic aircraft design. By solving a fundamental physical limitation that has constrained designers since the 1930s, these Chinese researchers haven’t just made a flying-wing faster—they may have redefined the balance of power in the skies for decades to come.
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