Science

China/Science

China’s hypersonic jumbo jet prototype hits Mach 6 in Gobi Desert test flight

Chinese institute reveals test footage of aircraft that could help turn dream of ‘one-hour global travel’ into reality

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Video footage released this week shows the prototype’s 2021 test flight, which had been kept under wraps for years because of the sensitivity of the project. Photo: Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Stephen Chenin Beijing

Published: 11:00pm, 11 Dec 2024

Chinese scientists have sent a hypersonic aircraft with a remarkably bulky body soaring through the sky, reaching a speed that could cover the distance from Beijing to New York in two hours.

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During a 2021 test flight first widely publicised this week, a scaled-down prototype of the aircraft reached a top speed of Mach 6.56 – or over six times the speed of sound.

The test has provided early validation of a design that, when first unveiled six years ago, was thought to be impossible.

“At the time, everyone thought it was a crazy idea,” said Cui Kai, the project’s leader and a researcher at the Institute of Mechanics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, speaking in Beijing in October.

“We faced almost universal scepticism. Fortunately, we chose to persevere. I always believed that innovation thrives amid doubt.”

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The aircraft marks a significant departure from the slender hypersonic vehicles previously seen. It features a fat and round fuselage and cape-shaped wings on its back.