In a bid to be the first to revolutionise their military and civilian programs, Beijing hope to come out top having revealed their research into the hypersonic plane.
The Concorde plane, which could cross the Atlantic in three and half hours, hasn’t flown since 2003.
The plane which could operate at a maximum speed over twice as fast as the speed of sound was revolutionary but Chinese researchers have gone above and beyond, with the reveal of their novel design for the supersonic plane.
If the plans are realised, the ultra-fast plane will be able to carry dozens of people and cargo, whether that’s tourists or military personal.
The plane would be able to travel at a speed 3,700mph – five times faster than the speed of sound.
This means you could travel from Beijing to New in just two hours.
Referred to as the I-plane, the possible uses of such high-end technology make this plane a game changer for air travel.
If travel times of this speed are possible, then that is cutting a journey time by 80 per cent.
A member of the research team has commented: “It’s a crazy design, but somehow they’ve managed to make it work”.
He even went on to describe the plane as, “something like a hypersonic heavy bomber”.
According to the South China Morning Post, the team responsible for the revolutionary design are also said to be “involved in China’s top-secret hypersonic weapons programme”.
This statement has raised questions as to the true purpose of such a fast plane, and caused some worry in certain quarters.
And that’s not all, such advances are pushing China’s technology advances further ahead.
In a comment earlier in the week, the head of American military Pacific Command, Admiral Harry Harris said: “China’s hypersonic weapons development outpaces ours, we’re falling behind.”
China are also responsible for developing the world’s fastest wind tunnel to simulate flight speeds of up to 12 kilometers per second.
This means a Chinese hypersonic vehicle would take just 14 minutes to reach the west coast of the of the US.
