A Chinese firm says it expects to fly a supersonic prototype in the second half of this year, with the goal of eventually flying a more advanced hypersonic commercial jet by 2030 at Mach 5 (3,836 mph), which means flying from New York to London in less than an hour, or about two hours from New York to Beijing.

Beijing-based Space Transportation, also known as Lingkong Tianxing Technology, recently revealed not one but two hypersonic aircraft: The Yunxing commercial passenger jet and the Cuantianhou ("Flying Monkey" in English) spaceplane. The Cuantianhou's prototype will have a length of 39 feet, a wingspan of 14.4 feet, and a maximum takeoff weight of about 10,000 pounds.

The company didn't release specs about the Yunxing commercial jet but said a smaller prototype made a successful 20-minute test flight in October. Space Transportation plans to have a two-passenger non-piloted version of the Yunxing ready by 2027. The aircraft is designed fly autonomously, reaching Mach 4 (3,069 mph), with a range of 1,864 miles and flight altitude of 12.4 miles.

General manager Fan Deng told spacenews.com that the long-term goal is to manufacture a larger, 50-passenger aircraft with a length of 90 feet and a weight of 70 tons, capable of hypersonic flight, or Mach 5 (3,836 mph).

Deng acknowledged that both the technology and engineering would be major obstacles to overcome before the concept is viable. High kinetic heating of the fuselage at hypersonic speeds will require high-tech exterior materials. The propulsion is also a challenge that is being addressed on a number of competitors. Laws that currently ban jets from supersonic flight overland in many countries, including the U.S., is also a hurdle that needs to change if hypersonic flight will be realistic. "In the future, we must do much more work on that," Fan told the website.

At more than twice the speed of the Concorde, the Yunxing is designed to fly passengers from London to New York in less than two hours. Some analysts have noted that the images of the Yunxing and Cuantianhou resemble the SR-71 Blackbird, the U.S. reconnaissance aircraft from the 1960s with a needle-nosed fuselage and delta wings. The Blackbird, which was retired in 1999, was the fastest jet-propelled aircraft ever built, capable of reaching Mach 3.32, or 2,193 miles per hour.