PLANS are underway to build a supersonic “winged rocket” that could travel at twice the speed of Concorde.
If successful, the ambitious jet could fly passengers from Bejing to New York in just one hour.
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At present, the typical flight time from New York to Beijing takes around 18 hours.
But China-based Space Transportation is aiming to shake up the conventional flight journeys by bringing high-speed, point-to-point transportation to the world.
In 2022, the company announced they’re developing a “rocket with wings” designed for space tourism which would offer never-before-seen travel times across the globe – changing the aviation industry as we know it.
Space transportation boasted that the supersonic jet would travel at 2,600mph – which is twice the spread of the iconic Concorde.
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The goal for the space plane is to provide rapid transport between two destinations through suborbital travel, while also being fully reusable.
A company spokesperson said: “We are developing a winged rocket for high-speed, point-to-point transportation, which is lower in cost than rockets that carry satellites and faster than traditional aircraft.”
The company’s website features a video showcasing the project with animated passengers boarding a plane with rockets attached to the wings.
After a vertical takeoff, the rocket-power wings detach from the plane as it continues to fly through thin air.
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And while the plane continues its journey, the wings and the boosters return to the launch pad.
After reaching the destination, the plane touches down vertically using three legs that unfold from the rear section of the jet.
Test flights were announced in 2022 – and are set to be completed by the end of this year.
If successful, a crew test flight will take place in 2025.
Meanwhile, plans for the world’s fastest aircraft that could travel 7,000mph and reach anywhere in the world in just 90 minutes have been unveiled.
The “Venus Stargazer Spaceplane” intends to be the quickest, reusable, hypersonic passenger plane ever created.
The futuristic beast of an aircraft is being developed to travel at Mach 9, which is nine times the speed of sound or nearly 7,000mph.
The US aerospace start-up hopes to be able to carry 12 passengers wherever they want in the world in just 90 minutes by flying up to the cusp of space.
Venus Stargazer has been jointly developed with Nasa’s top human spaceflight facility.
After taking into account take-off and landing, the jet should be able to cross 5,000 miles – the distance between Houston to London or San Francisco to Tokyo – in just one hour.
Elsewhere, a hypersonic aircraft set to shake up flight times is being developed by “Russia’s Elon Musk”.
Entrepreneur Mikhail Korkorich is building a hydrogen-powered plane capable of flying at five times the speed of sound.
The company’s revolutionary project Destinus S is a 25-seater business jet that can fly up to 6,000 miles at an altitude of 108,000 feet.
This means the jet will soar more than 60,000 feet higher than current airliners.
The start-up is also planning to build a wide-body passenger jet known as Destinus-L.
The aircraft will have the capacity to carry 300-400 people and can travel up to 13,670 miles.
