Its complex aerodynamic design allows the aircraft to travel faster than five times the speed of sound.
It comes as it emerged China is developing a 6,000mph nuke missile engine which is reportedly based on a design abandoned by Nasa because it cost too much.
In today’s rapidly militarising China, however, money is no object — especially if it keeps the communist regime ahead in the arms race.
Now wing tech from Concorde is also being used, this time in aircraft.
According to a study by China’s space scientists, the hypersonic plane is larger than a Boeing 737, the 148ft plane has two air-breathing engines mounted on top of its main body, reports South China Morning Post.
The researchers used a new aerodynamic model that has been proven effective in China’s latest space missions to evaluate the plane’s performance at high altitudes.
During the space tests they found areas on the plane that required extra protection or strengthening.
Spots would be most likely to suffer sudden spikes of heat and pressure when the plane reaches six times the speed of sound or 4,447mph.
Liu Rui, of the Beijing Institute of Technology, said their findings would find “applications in similar engineering projects”.
The success of the two space missions – which was the first time any country had completed either mission at the first attempt – showed the concept worked.
Hypersonic aircraft are chief among China’s hi-tech plans and it has continued to pour large sums of money and resources into the sector.
HYPERSONIC JET FLEET WITHIN TEN YEARS
By 2025, it aims to complete its experiments to verify all the key components of hypersonic flight, including a new generation of air-breathing engine that can push an aircraft to rocket speed, according to an official timeline revealed last month.Ten years after that, China aims to be operating a fleet of hypersonic aircraft that can transport 10 passengers to anywhere on Earth within an hour.
And by 2045, these planes will carry more than 100 passengers per flight, according to the plans.
It comes as China fired a hypersonic missile around the globe in October with the US left reeling by the terrifying display of military strength.
US intelligence and military officials were reportedly left stunned after China launched a rocket in space carrying a hypersonic glide vehicle that circled the globe before speeding towards its target.
The nuke-capable missile missed its target by about two-dozen miles when it was secretly launched in August, intelligence sources told the Financial Times.
The Boeing Manta X-47C which was part of the abandoned NASA project now taken up by the Chinese
The sun
