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From Mach 0 to 6: this engine may power China’s future fighter jets and missiles

China is developing a revolutionary air-breathing engine for next-generation fighter jets and hypersonic missiles.
Designed to operate continuously from a stationary start-up to over Mach 6,…

By Samantha Johnson / March 30, 2026
Designed to operate continuously from a stationary start-up to over Mach 6, the “contra-rotary ramjet engine” could replace the combined turbine-ramjet systems currently used in high-speed flight.

After more than three decades of work, the engine prototype has been completed and experimentally verified, marking a potential step towards engineering applications.

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The next steps involve adapting the engine to various aircraft platforms and conducting real-world flight tests, according to researchers involved in the project.

“China’s development of new-principle engines would be a strategic choice to break the Western monopoly and even surpass the West,” Xu Jianzhong, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), was quoted as saying in a China Science Daily report earlier this month.

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Conventional approaches to hypersonic flight typically require two separate propulsion systems: a turbine engine for speeds below Mach 3 and a ramjet for higher speeds.

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