China`s hypersonic aircraft can cut Shanghai to New York travel time by 12 hours

Space Transportation will launch its 12-seater passenger pod-type aircraft which will cover the distance from Shanghai to New York in just two hours.

A Chinese company is developing an aircraft that will fly at a speed up to one mile per second and can cover the distance from Shanghai to New York in just two hours. The current China Eastern’s nonstop service takes around 15 hours from Shanghai’s PVG airport to JFK airport in the USA in a Boeing 777 widebody aircraft.

However, Space Transportation (known as Lingkong Tianxing Ltd. in China) will launch its 12-seater passenger pod-type aircraft, vertically using two boosters that will get detached once it reaches cruise altitude.

The boosters will hang from a delta-wing-like structure. After separation, the passenger pod fires up its propulsion system and carries on with ease. For landing, the aircraft will make its final landing vertically, using a tripod structure similar to the one used in SpaceX rockets.

Though various aviation companies have been trying their hands at making supersonic and hypersonic aircraft for commercial purposes, Space Transportation aims to verify and test the technological aspects of its first suborbital hypersonic aircraft by 2023 and if the aircraft passes the test then the flight will be open for a manned test by 2025. However, the sizes of both of the aircraft would be smaller than the actual commercial aircraft. The company doesn’t expect the full-size hypersonic vehicle to be ready before 2030.

Space Transportation is currently the only country in China that is working on hypersonic commercial aviation. If this suborbital hypersonic aircraft succeeds then it will be travelling more than twice as fast as the iconic Concorde.

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