28 April 2019
Chinese scientists have developed a new heat-resistant material for hypersonic aircraft which can endure over 3,000 C from friction caused by a Mach 5-20 flight within the atmosphere. Unlike foreign technologies that use traditional refractory metals and carbon-carbon materials, the China-made new material is a composite of ceramics and refractory metals, Fan Jinglian, the lead scientist who developed the material and a professor at Central South University in Central China's Hunan Province, told media. Hypersonic aircraft is not the only area in which materials made of ceramics and refractory metals can shine, Fan said. Any field that involves extreme high temperature, such as engines, space rockets and nuclear reactors, will have a great demand for the material, Fan noted.
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