China’s next-gen nuclear bomber the H-20.
According to a recent report by the South China Morning Post, based on a peer-reviewed Chinese research paper, aerospace engineers in China claim they have developed a breakthrough that could allow future stealth bombers to fly dramatically faster without sacrificing stealth South China Morning Post. If adopted, the technology could raise the safe flight speed of flying-wing aircraft by more than 60 percent, challenging long-standing limits that have shaped stealth bomber design for decades.
Flying-wing bombers are prized for their low radar visibility, but that advantage comes with a serious weakness. Without a tail, these aircraft are extremely sensitive to airflow changes, and at higher speeds their long wings can flex and vibrate violently. This phenomenon, known as rigid-elastic coupled flutter, can destabilize the entire aircraft in seconds and has historically forced flying-wing bombers to remain well below supersonic speeds.
The most famous example of this trade-off is the B-2 Spirit, which relies on stealth rather than speed to survive modern air defenses. By contrast, Russia’s Tu-160 prioritizes raw speed but lacks comparable radar invisibility. Until now, engineers believed it was nearly impossible to combine both attributes in a single bomber.
A Chinese J-20 fighter jet
Chinese researchers say they may have found a way around that limitation. In a study led by Professor Huang Rui of the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Professor Hu Haiyan of the Beijing Institute of Technology, the team describes an active flutter-suppression system that stabilizes the aircraft in real time. Instead of reinforcing the airframe with heavier materials, the system uses onboard sensors to detect early vibrations and instantly adjusts airflow to counter them before they escalate.
The researchers report that this method increased the maximum safe flight speed of a test flying-wing drone by 62.5 percent, setting what they describe as a world record for this aircraft configuration. Crucially, the approach does not require major structural redesigns, making it theoretically easier to integrate into future military aircraft.
After more than ten years of theoretical work, the team validated the concept using real flight tests. They also developed China’s first domestically produced software capable of modeling rigid-elastic flight dynamics, allowing engineers to better predict how flexible wings behave at high speeds. Huang said that an aircraft previously limited to around Mach 0.5 could potentially reach Mach 0.7 while becoming more stable, not less.
The implications are significant for China’s rumored next-generation bomber, the H-20. Widely expected to use a flying-wing design similar to the B-2, the H-20 has been assumed to prioritize stealth over speed. If this technology is incorporated, it could narrow the gap between stealth bombers and faster strike aircraft, giving China a platform that is harder to detect and quicker to respond.
Military analysts say the research challenges a decades-old assumption in aerospace design: that stealth and speed must always be traded against each other. If the findings translate from test drones to full-scale bombers, they could mark a fundamental shift in how future long-range strike aircraft are built and deployed.
The study has been published here.