China developing hypersonic passenger jet capable of reaching any destination in 2 hours
- A Chinese university is working on a new hypersonic jet
- The plane would accommodate up to 10 passengers
- It could reach Mach 6
Published on Sep 04, 2024 at 7:34 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on Sep 05, 2024 at 8:45 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Tom Wood
Chinese scientists are working on a revolutionary aircraft for hypersonic travel.
The proposed jet would be capable of flying at Mach 6, which would make the jet fly three times faster than Concorde.
For reference, Mach 6 is equivalent to over 7,400km/h.
Earth has a diameter of 12,742km, so that means that, in theory, this jet could fly anywhere in two hours.
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They call it ‘MUTTER’
The project, codenamed Nanqiang No 1, is currently being developed by a University in Xiamen, about 1,200 miles south of Beijing.
In order to achieve this quite frankly unbelievable speed, scientists are working on a new type of engine, which they call the ‘MUTTER’.
It stands for multi-ducted twin-turbines ejector-ramjet.
They say that computer modeling and early testing has shown that the engine is capable of reaching speeds over Mach 6.
That’s roughly the same as the Blackbird successor that Lockheed Martin is developing for the US Air Force, but with one crucial difference.
The Blackbird successor is a fighter jet designed to achieve that speed over brief periods of time, whereas the jet the university is working on is designed as a commercial airliner
Potential issues with a hypersonic airliner
We all know that there hasn’t been any commercial airliner capable of flying supersonic since Concorde, and there’s never been a hypersonic one.
Obviously we are all excited but – as you can imagine – there are several elephants in the room.
First and foremost, cost.
It would be extremely expensive to produce a prototype for an aircraft like this, and even more expensive to mass-produce it.
But, even if they somehow managed to do that, they’d still need to address more issues.
For starters, several countries simply banned supersonic (passenger) jets because of the noise of the sonic boom.
NASA is working on a new prototype for a jet that’s somehow able to mitigate that, but it’s not ready yet.
Then, last but certainly not least, there’s seating capacity.
The plane Xiamen University is working on would be capable of accommodating 10 passengers at best.
We don’t even want to imagine the price of a ticket.
