Hypersonic ‘jumbo jet ROCKET’ hits 5,000mph in major step toward goal of flying passengers anywhere on Earth in 60mins
A ROCKET jet has hit a dizzying new speed of over 5,000mph – with hopes the project will one day be able to take passengers anywhere in the world in just 60 minutes.
Scientists behind the Chinese aircraft announced on December 10 that the test plane had reached a speed more than six times the speed of sound (Mach 6.56).
Amazing test footage shows the prototype launching rapidly into the air with trail of fire following its ascent.
The speedy jet reached a staggering 5,033mph.
Cui Kai, the project’s leader revealed the plane’s enormous speed could take passengers from Beijing to New York in two hours instead of the current 12 to 14.
Cui said in an October speech announcing the technology: “At the time, everyone thought it was a crazy idea.
“We faced almost universal scepticism. Fortunately, we chose to persevere.
“I always believed that innovation thrives amid doubt.
“The moment I saw that small aircraft soar into the sky, the sense of achievement and pride was truly indescribable.”
The imposing plane features a fat and round fuselage and cape-shaped wings on its back.
This means that in the future, hypersonic aircraft could carry just as many passengers or as much cargo as today’s jumbo jets.
They carried out the test flight at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert of northwest China in August 2021, and was kept secret until now.
The monumental breakthrough for aviation hasn’t just solved a speed issue, but an issue of logistical space inside the aircraft.
All hypersonic aircraft now capable of flying at speeds above Mach 5 have severely limited internal space, restricting their use to military applications such as missiles and unmanned reconnaissance aircraft.
At high speeds, the front of a large airframe experiences significant downward pressure, impairing its climbing ability.
Cui added a broad wing surface above the airframe to convert this downward pressure into upward lift, effectively turning a drawback into an advantage.
This is a major innovation in aircraft engineering, albeit turning a problem into something that can currently only be solved with an incredibly complex design.
CHALLENGES AHEAD
According to Cui, plenty of challenges lie ahead before the jet can take to the skies.
He continued: “For such cutting-edge technology, we still face numerous challenges that need to be addressed directly, including issues related to power, materials and structure.
“We have only completed a small fraction of the work and taken a modest step forward.”
Fans of aviation will remember the failed Concorde, suggesting just how difficult this kind of technology is to perfect and make safe.
Why did the Concorde fail?
THE Concorde remains one of the deadliest and most costly aircraft disasters in modern British history.
Concorde is a retired Anglo-French supersonic airliner, costing was estimated at £70million (£1.68billion in 2023).
Construction of the six prototypes began in February 1965, and the first flight took off from Toulouse on 2 March 1969.
Concorde was a tailless aircraft design with a narrow fuselage permitting 4-abreast seating for 92 to 128 passengers.
Delays and cost overruns increased the programme cost to £1.5–2.1 billion in 1976, (£11–16 billion in 2023).
Concorde needed to fly long distances to be economically viable; this required high efficiency from the powerplant.
Turbofan engines were rejected due to their larger cross-section producing excessive drag.
Developing a wholly-new engine for a single aircraft would have been extremely costly.
So, the existing BSEL Olympus Mk 320 turbojet engine was chosen instead even though it was not custom built for the Concorde.
It also faced critical overheating problems due to its speed and extreme air intake.
On 25 July 2000, Air France Flight 4590 crashed shortly after take-off with all 109 occupants and four on the ground killed.
This was the only fatal incident involving Concorde; commercial service was suspended until November 2001.
The surviving aircraft were retired in 2003, 27 years after commercial operations had begun.
One test costs hundreds of thousands of yuan, and the team had to carry out several on this prototype alone just to test it.
The Chinese scientists also have to watch out for competition from other countries, as the race for faster air travel intensifies.
The United States, is also working on hypersonic aircraft technology.
According to some accounts, the US Air Force plans to introduce the SR-72 “Darkstar,” a Lockheed Martin aircraft that is the fastest in the world with a Mach 6.0 speed.
Cui did not reveal whether a full-scale model of the aircraft has been constructed, is under construction, or the time period for its first flight.