Built in 2012, the JF-12, dubbed ‘Hyper Dragon,' has been a carefully kept secret. The 2.5 meter wide, 265 meter long installation reportedly cost almost $7 million to construct and is capable of creating wind speeds up to 10 times the speed of sound, or about 7,680 mph. At those speeds, the air temperature in the tunnel can reach 5400 degrees Fahrenheit, testing the impact of hypersonic travel on structural materials.
The JF-12 Hypersonic Wind Tunnel began operations in March 2014. It is the world's largest hypersonic wind tunnel, capable of achieving speeds of Mach 5 to Mach 9.
JF-12 tunnel conducts its tests every two days, and each test lasts only one-tenth of a second.
The JF-12 can produce speeds of up to Mach 9 (NASA's hypersonic wind tunnel reaches to only Mach 7). The JF-12 would provide Chinese scientists with a convenient way to observe supersonic airflow of different scramjet configurations, in addition to directly testing material durability in laboratory conditions, rather than having to make difficult and expensive high-altitude engine test flights.
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