What to know

Chinese Hypersonic Jet Revealed

the chinese hypersonic jet plane

A team of Chinese engineers have revealed the design of a hypersonic jet that could travel at the speed of 6,000km/h.

A flight from the Chinese capital Beijing to New York takes around 13 and a half hours. However, this new hypersonic jet could make the trip in just two (hours), making travel and shipping a lot faster, and possibly cheaper, than ever.

In the research published in this month’s Physics, Mechanics and Astronomy journal, lead researcher Cui Kai said that “it will take only a couple of hours to travel from Beijing to New York at hypersonic speed”.

According to researchers, the a scaled-down model of the jet was tested in a wind tunnel, and reached speeds of 8,600 kilometers per hour, with low drag and high lift.

The Concorde, one of the world’s fastest commercial jets, can travel at 2,179km/h. However, while many companies are currently working on their own supersonic jets, the Concorde and other previously operational supersonic jets have not been used commercially for a while.

The I Plane – as it is called – has a pretty impressive design. Instead of the usual one set of wings at the middle and a smaller set at the back of the plane, it has a double set of wings on top of each other.

It is believed that the two layers of wings reduce both turbulence and drag while creating more lift for the plane.

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