Chinese prototype a precursor to hypersonic passenger travel anywhere in the world in 2 hours, says team
- Completion of all test flights by 2025 will allow the development of a passenger aircraft that can travel more than 6,000km at Mach 6: researchers
- Challenges for the project include devising a way to slow and land during an emergency as well as commercial viability
The Nanqiang No 1 unmanned aircraft weighs just 500kg (1,100 pounds) but it can reach five times the speed of sound, or faster, according to the team.
The researchers have squeezed into its small body three different types of power systems, a design some experts thought would never work.
The drone can take off and land on a runway like an ordinary plane.
The completion of all test flights by 2025 will pave the way for the development of a full-sized hypersonic aircraft that can transport 10 passengers more than 6,000km (3,700 miles) at Mach 6, according to the research team.
“The breakthrough of this technology will greatly shorten the round-the-world flight time,” lead project scientist Yin Zeyong wrote in a paper published last week in Acta Aeronautica et Astronautica Sinica, a peer-reviewed journal run by the China Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
“It can change human civilisation,” said Yin, director of science and technology with the Aero Engine Corporation of China.