China to complete building world's fastest wind tunnel in 2020

China is building a wind tunnel for advanced aircraft-testing which will be able to simulate hypersonic flight at speeds of up to 12 kilometers per second, considered the world’s fastest.

Zhao Wei, a senior scientist on the project, said that their goal is to complete the facility and have it operational by 2020, CCTV reported.

A wind tunnel is a tool used in aerodynamic research to study the effects of air moving past solid objects. The aircraft cannot move when tested on the ground, so the wind tunnel creates airflow that has the same speed as the aircraft to simulate flight conditions.

These ground tests help researchers to figure out issues connected to hypersonic aircraft and reduce the risk of failure before test flights start.

Hypersonic aircraft are defined as vehicles that travel at five times the speed of sound or above, CNBC reported.

"The world-famous wind tunnel in the US can achieve four to seven times the speed of sound," said Jiang Zonglin, a researcher from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, adding that the Chinese one will be able to simulate aircraft at five to ten times the speed of sound.

"We want the next generation’s aircraft to achieve five times the speed of sound or above," Jiang told CCTV. "It will take only two hours flying from Beijing to New York if we succeed."

"It will change our lives by turning international travel to domestic travel," Jiang added.