If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then China’s embrace of stealth aircraft technology is a compliment to American ingenuity. Both awed by — and apprehensive about — U.S. stealth capabilities, China has invested heavily in developing stealth aircraft, as well as anti-stealth air defenses. But China has learned the wrong lessons from America’s…
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV has shown what might be the wildest concept video to come out of Beijing in years. It’s basically a rendered clip of a whole fleet of massive triangular grey motherships hovering at the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere, firing weapons into orbit and deploying futuristic fighter jets. Now, we’ve seen plenty…
Mach 2 (twice the local speed of sound) is incredibly fast, and few modern aircraft fly much faster. Operating at higher speeds is rare in real-world warfare and entails huge compromises. Despite this, some astonishingly fast planes flying today comfortably exceed Mach 2. A handful of designs prove that extreme speed still matters, surviving decades…
China announced it has begun mass producing the world’s first ultra-low noise, single-photon detector featuring four channels, suggesting that powerful applications loom in everything from daily communications to national defence. Dubbed the “photon catcher”, the device can detect a single photon – the smallest unit of energy – making it a core component in cutting-edge…