Chinese military scientists have unveiled a rare glimpse into one of the most advanced frontiers of aerospace technology: a prototype of a morphing hypersonic vehicle capable of flying at speeds exceeding Mach 5.
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The missile, revealed in a published peer-reviewed paper, features a pair of retractable wings – a groundbreaking design that allows it to dynamically adapt its aerodynamic profile mid-flight.
When stowed inside the fuselage, the wings minimise drag for high-speed cruising. When extended, they generate additional lift and significantly improve manoeuvrability.
Crucially, the degree of wing deployment can be finely adjusted, enabling real-time changes to the vehicle’s overall aerodynamic shape and flight characteristics – a capability long considered the “holy grail” of hypersonic flight.
The design was detailed in a paper published on October 20 in Acta Aeronautica et Astronautica Sinica, China’s leading aerospace journal, by a research team led by Professor Wang Peng from the College of Aerospace Science and Engineering at the National University of Defence Technology (NUDT).
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The study confirmed the vehicle’s novel control algorithms and key components had successfully passed hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) ground tests – a critical milestone indicating the system is not just theoretical, but viable for real-world deployment.