In 2019,one of China’s top aeronautics scientists made a proud announcement that received little attention back then: His team had launched an airship more than 60,000 feet into the air and sent it sailing around most of the globe, including across North America.
The scientist, Wu Zhe, told a state-run news outlet at the time that the “Cloud Chaser” airship was a milestone in his vision of populating the upper reaches of the earth’s atmosphere with steerable balloons that could be used to provide early warnings of natural disasters, monitor pollution or carry out airborne surveillance.
“This is the first time that an aerodynamically controlled airship has flown around the world in the stratosphere at 20,000 metres,”professor Wu told a local newspaper. The 2019 flight was not a one-off for Wu and his team. The Eagles Men AviationScience and Technology Group, or Emast, a Beijing-based company that Wu co-founded in 2004, has claimed a series of other successes for them.
A senior academic at Beihang University, a Beijing-based institution, professor Wu has also worked in airship development for nearly two decades. Now several of his companies have been caught up in the Biden administration’s efforts tocounter those plans. Wu has been a founder or major stakeholder in at least three of the six Chinese entities that US punished last week for their involvement in what the Biden administration calls Beijing’s surveillance balloon programme.
Wu has helped design jet fighters,developed expertise in stealth materials and won prizes for his work from China’s military. He has emerged as a central figure in China’s ambitions in “near space,” the band of the atmosphere between 12 and 62 miles above earth that is too high for most planes to stay aloft for long and too low for space satellites. Near space “is a major sphere of competition between the 21st century military powers,” Shi Hong, a Chinese military commentator said last year. “Whoever gains the edge in near space vehicles will be able to win more of the initiative in future wars.”
The scientist, Wu Zhe, told a state-run news outlet at the time that the “Cloud Chaser” airship was a milestone in his vision of populating the upper reaches of the earth’s atmosphere with steerable balloons that could be used to provide early warnings of natural disasters, monitor pollution or carry out airborne surveillance.
“This is the first time that an aerodynamically controlled airship has flown around the world in the stratosphere at 20,000 metres,”professor Wu told a local newspaper. The 2019 flight was not a one-off for Wu and his team. The Eagles Men AviationScience and Technology Group, or Emast, a Beijing-based company that Wu co-founded in 2004, has claimed a series of other successes for them.
A senior academic at Beihang University, a Beijing-based institution, professor Wu has also worked in airship development for nearly two decades. Now several of his companies have been caught up in the Biden administration’s efforts tocounter those plans. Wu has been a founder or major stakeholder in at least three of the six Chinese entities that US punished last week for their involvement in what the Biden administration calls Beijing’s surveillance balloon programme.
Wu has helped design jet fighters,developed expertise in stealth materials and won prizes for his work from China’s military. He has emerged as a central figure in China’s ambitions in “near space,” the band of the atmosphere between 12 and 62 miles above earth that is too high for most planes to stay aloft for long and too low for space satellites. Near space “is a major sphere of competition between the 21st century military powers,” Shi Hong, a Chinese military commentator said last year. “Whoever gains the edge in near space vehicles will be able to win more of the initiative in future wars.”