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IPFS News Link • Transportation: Air Travel

China unveils plans for hypersonic jet that can fly anywhere in the world in three hours

• telegraph.co.uk By Hugh Morris

Travelling at up to 3,800 miles an hour, more than six times the speed of a typical commercial jet and twice as fast as a supersonic aircraft, it has been developed for the Chinese military, but could be used for passengers.

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences say they have tested a scaled-down model of the hypersonic jet in a wind tunnel, where it reached a top speed of 5,343mph.

Writing in the Physics, Mechanics and Astronomy journal, Cui Kai said: "It will take only a couple of hours to travel from Beijing to New York at hypersonic speed.

"This could provide more convenient and efficient transportation than present subsonic airplanes for long-distance journeys in future.'

The aircraft will have two sets of wings that use one another to reduce turbulence and drag.