Around the world in a few hours: China's hypersonic jumbo jet shatters Mach 6.5

Chinese scientists have announced that a prototype jumbo jet built by them managed to reach hypersonic speeds (over Mach 5) during a flight test.

According to a report by Interesting Engineering, the test flight of the rather bulky prototype was carried out in August 2021, in which the aircraft reached a whopping Mach 6.56 (almost 8,100 km/hr).

Despite the test flight being over three years old, results of the test had been kept under wraps due to the sensitive nature of the project.

However, the scientists' success was recently announced after the Chinese Academy of Sciences shared a post on social media with a ideo of the jumbo jet prototype's lift-off, and a speech by Cui Kai, the project lead.

The speech by Kai was delivered in Beijing in October, wherein he revealed the jet's test results.

Kai and his team are understood to be working on this project for long: in 2013, the team had revealed a conceptual configuration of this aircraft, which they had predicted would be able to fly at hypersonic speeds.

While Kai and his team aren't the only ones to be dabbling in hypersonic trial, this jet's bulky design is understood to be a departure from the typically slim concepts for hypersonic aircraft.

Owing to the insane speeds at which such aircraft are expected to travel, hypersonic vessels usually have restricted internal space, making them unfit for commercial use and more fit for military applications such as missiles and unmanned reconnaissance missions.

Given this fact, the reported success of Kai's team could prove to be a breakthrough in making hypersonic travel commercially viable.

For perspective, a Beijing-New York commercial flight at current speeds typically takes over 13 hours. In contrast, a hypersonic flight would be able to cover that distance in two hours, making global travel a literal breeze.

That being said, it is currently unclear whether a full-scale model of the jumbo jet prototype has been constructed, or the time period in which one can be expected to be constructed, tested, and flown for the first time.

Regardless, the team's reported breakthrough, if it develops, could be major stepping stone in the commercialisation of hypersonic travel.