Chinese scientists from the Beijing Institute of Energy Engineering reported that the “world’s most powerful explosion engine” has been created. Developers describe it as an air-jet power plant that can lift the aircraft to an altitude of 30 km and reach a speed of about Mach 16. With these parameters, intercontinental flights will take only an hour or two.

Full technical details have not been disclosed, but the peer-reviewed China Journal of Propulsion Technology has published a rendering of it. Two-mode engine. It operates as a detonation engine that rotates at speeds up to Mach 7. The air coming from outside combines with the fuel and ignites, causing a shock wave to occur. The wave propagates in a ring throughout the chamber: as the shock wave rotates, it picks up more fuel, resulting in a strong and long-lasting thrust.

At a speed above Mach 7, the shock wave stops rotating: thrust is preserved in the form of an almost flat explosion. The fuel automatically explodes when it reaches the rear platform of the engine due to the high speed of the incoming air.

Scientists did not provide information about the efficiency of the power plant, but if we trust previous scientific estimates, the explosion of flammable gases can convert almost 80% of chemical energy into kinetic energy. For comparison, the efficiency of conventional turbofan engines is 20-30%. According to the researchers, the new engine turned out to be relatively unpretentious in terms of operating conditions. Source