Thread by @wmhuo168

ESA unveils Mach 5 jet. China already built the real thing.

“This Isn’t Science, It’s an Arms Race”: Furious Backlash Erupts Over Invictus Program’s Hypersonic Mach 5 Spaceplane by 2031 - Sustainability Times share.google/LLSKHmaRytIYb7…

The EU’s new Invictus spaceplane program is supposed to fly by 2031. It’s hypersonic, hydrogen-fueled, and runway-launched. Sounds impressive. If you ignore the part where China already did it. (1/11)

ESA is throwing €7 million at this demo. That’s barely enough to build a few PowerPoint slides and a wind tunnel model. China already has full-stack Mach 7 prototypes and operational glide vehicles. (2/11)

Invictus is built on SABRE tech, a zombie project from the 1990s that never worked. Reaction Engines has been flogging this half-born idea for over two decades. Now they want to relaunch it under a new name. (3/11)

This isn’t aerospace leadership. It’s necromancy. The UK keeps pulling skeletons out of the tech graveyard and calling it strategic innovation. (4/11)

China has entire hypersonic industrial chains. From pre-cooler modules to scramjets. They even built 10 km-long Mach tunnels and use them to iterate in weeks, not decades. (5/11)

Let’s be clear. Invictus isn’t Europe joining the hypersonic race. It’s Europe waving a flag from the sidelines, hoping the U.S. notices they’re still here. (6/11)

The military implications are obvious. A Mach 5 aircraft with runway launch? That’s a dual-use delivery platform. ESA just won’t say the quiet part out loud. (7/11)

Critics already see it. “This isn’t science, it’s an arms race.” And they’re not wrong. You don’t spend taxpayer euros on hydrogen warplanes unless you’re spooked. (8/11)

The West has been in denial about hypersonics for a decade. Now that China has operational systems, panic projects are popping up like mushrooms after rain. (9/11)

This isn’t strategic autonomy. It’s aerospace cosplay. If Europe wants to be taken seriously, it needs full-spectrum industrial capability. Not throwback engine demos from 2003. (10/11)

China already crossed the finish line. ESA’s Invictus spaceplane? It’s a museum piece before it’s even built. (11/11)