According to CNN, a Chinese company by the name of Space Transportation has announced plans to develop vehicles capable of hypersonic flight for civilian use. The proposed aircraft would complete a journey from Shanghai to New York in just two hours, traveling more than twice as fast as the iconic Concorde.

Shanghai to New York in two hours

The Chinese Technology company is developing aircraft that can fly at speeds up to one mile per second and travel between Shanghai and New York in two hours. For some context, China Eastern’s nonstop service from Shanghai’s PVG Airport to JFK takes nearly 15 hours using a Boeing 777 widebody aircraft.

Of course, when traveling at one mile per second, one cannot make a similar approach to flying as current civil aviation. Space Transportation will launch its hypersonic aircraft vertically using two boosters that will be detached after reaching cruise altitude. The boosters are hung from a delta wing-like structure.

The landing sequence will also be fairly similar, with the aircraft making its final descent vertically before landing using a tripod structure identical to the one used in SpaceX rockets. Space Transportation has released an animated video that helps visualize the concept. The video shows a 12-seater passenger pod-type vehicle that separates from the delta wing after reaching its specified altitude. After separation, the passenger pod fires up its own propulsion system and makes its way across continents with utmost ease.

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The hypersonic vehicle could travel from Shanghai to New York in two hours. Photo: GCMaps

First flight in 2023

Several companies around the globe have been developing supersonic and hypersonic travel capabilities for commercial aviation use for decades now, but it looks like we may be closer to realization than ever. Space Transportation aims to conduct the first flight of its suborbital hypersonic aircraft by 2023. The main aim of this test flight would be to verify all the technological aspects on a large scale.

If all goes well, the first manned test flight is scheduled to occur a couple of years later in 2025. However, both these flights will be made using smaller aircraft than the one under development for commercial use. The company doesn’t expect a full-size hypersonic vehicle to be ready before 2030.

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Several other companies are currently developing aircraft capable of hypersonic travel. Photo: Reaction Engines

Space Transportation, or Lingkong Tianxing Ltd., as it is known in China, claims to be the only company in the country currently working on hypersonic commercial aviation. The company is headquartered in Beijing and has other facilities dotted around the subcontinent.

It will be interesting to see if Space Transportation’s dreams of going hypersonic are ever realized. The engineering complications to build something so complex cannot be overstated. However, if and when hypersonic commercial flights are possible, they are likely to be accessible to the ultra-rich at least in the initial period.

What do you think about hypersonic commercial flights? If such aircraft are possible in the future, how likely are you to fly on them? Please, let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Source: CNN