Chinese scientists launched a supersonic plane with a particularly massive body, reaching enough speed to travel between Beijing and New York in two hours.
China’s new supersonic aircraft model has a large body and wings that spread out over its back like a cape. Image: Chinese Academy of Sciences
In the first announced test flight, the small prototype of the aircraft reached a maximum speed of Mach 6.56 (8,100 km/h). The experiment helps preliminary check a design that was once considered impossible when announced six years ago.
“At that time, everyone thought this was a crazy idea. We faced many doubts,” said Cui Kai, a researcher in charge of the project at the Institute of Mechanical Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. , recounted.
The new aircraft model marks a major change compared to previous elongated supersonic vehicles. It has a bulky body and cape-like wings on its back. This means that in the future, supersonic aircraft can carry as many passengers or cargo as wide-body jets.
After a decade of development, Cui’s team successfully applied for permission to test-fly the vehicle at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China’s Gobi Desert in August 2021. The nearly 20-minute test flight solved a long-standing challenge for aircraft designers: as airspeed increases, usable space inside the cabin decreases. That’s why an adult can easily hit their head while standing inside the Concorde supersonic passenger plane.
All current supersonic aircraft that can fly at speeds above Mach 5 (6,174 km/h) have extremely limited internal space, leading to limited use in military applications such as missiles. and unmanned reconnaissance aircraft. At high speeds, the front part of the frame is subjected to high downward pressure, affecting the vehicle’s ability to fly high.
Cui added a wide wing surface above the airframe to convert downward pressure into upward lift, effectively turning a disadvantage into an advantage. However, it is an unprecedentedly complex design. After introducing the concept in 2018, Cui’s team continued to refine the design and increasingly conducted wind tunnel testing. Each test costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. Researchers conducted several ground tests to test the feasibility of multiple models, paving the way for a successful test flight.
Due to the sensitivity of the project, the test flight was kept secret for 3 years. Cui did not reveal the status of the full-size aircraft’s construction or the expected schedule of its first flight. However, their efforts could revolutionize air traffic.