China tests hypersonic jet at Mach 6.56 reaching a breakthrough as recently revealed in a journal.
Chinese scientists have announced that a prototype jumbo jet has successfully reached hypersonic speeds during a flight test. Conducted in 2021, the test demonstrated the aircraft achieving Mach 6.56, or about 5,033 miles per hour. This breakthrough, detailed in a paper published in the Chinese journal Physics, Mechanics and Astronomy, marks significant progress in aviation technology.
The flight test took place in August 2021 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre, located in the Gobi Desert in northwest China. Due to the project’s sensitive nature, the results were initially kept confidential. However, the Chinese Academy of Sciences recently disclosed details of the test flight and shared a video of the aircraft’s launch on social media.
Cui Kai, the lead researcher of the project from the Institute of Mechanics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, presented the test results at an event in Beijing in October. He recalled the initial skepticism surrounding the idea. “At first, people thought this was an unrealistic concept,” Cui said. “We faced widespread doubt, but we remained committed. I have always believed that true innovation emerges through challenges.”
Cui and his team first introduced the concept of a hypersonic jumbo jet in 2013, envisioning an aircraft that could transport passengers and cargo from Beijing to New York in just two hours—dramatically cutting down the current 13-hour flight time.
“It took nearly three years to finalize the design,” Cui explained. The goal was to develop a hypersonic aircraft with passenger and cargo capacity comparable to modern jumbo jets.
By 2018, reports suggested that Cui’s team had designed a hypersonic jet with a unique structure. Unlike the sleek profiles of other hypersonic aircraft concepts, this model featured a more robust frame. “It has a rounded, broad fuselage with cape-shaped wings on its back,” Cui described.
A key challenge the test flight addressed was maintaining adequate interior space while increasing flight speed. Most hypersonic vehicles have limited space, making them suitable mainly for military applications such as missiles and unmanned reconnaissance missions.
“At high velocities, the front of a large aircraft experiences strong downward pressure, which hinders its ability to ascend,” Cui explained. To counteract this, his team incorporated a broad wing structure above the airframe to transform downward pressure into lift. However, this design modification introduced additional complexities. “The tests required an investment of hundreds of thousands of yuan,” he said, “but repeated trials confirmed that our design was viable.”
Despite this breakthrough, Cui acknowledged that significant obstacles remain. “There are still many challenges we must overcome, particularly in areas such as propulsion, materials, and structural integrity,” he noted. “What we have accomplished so far is just a small step in a much larger journey.”
The Chinese Academy of Sciences has not disclosed whether a full-scale version of the aircraft has been constructed or when it might undergo further testing. Nevertheless, they remain optimistic about the future of hypersonic travel.
According to a report by the South China Morning Post, the team’s advancements could revolutionize human transportation, turning the once-fictional idea of “one-hour global travel” into reality.
In 2022, the National Natural Science Foundation of China approved funding to advance civilian hypersonic flight technology. If Cui’s team succeeds, it could transform air travel by making ultra-fast journeys feasible.
“The global competition to develop hypersonic technology is intense,” Cui noted. China aims to deploy a fleet of crewed hypersonic aircraft by 2035, capable of reaching any destination on Earth within hours.
The United States is also pursuing hypersonic aircraft development. The US Air Force is working on the SR-72 “Darkstar,” a Lockheed Martin aircraft designed to reach Mach 6 speeds. Although hypersonic research began in the late 1950s with the X-15 program, interest in the field waned during the Vietnam War and later shifted toward counterterrorism efforts.
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