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CHINA has thrown itself into the supersonic passenger jet race with its C949 plane that can zoom from London to New York in under three hours.
The ultra-fast aircraft promises significantly less noise than the retired Concorde and 50 per cent further flight range.
Designed by China’s state-owned aircraft company Comac the aircraft is billed to reach 6,800 miles – a much further stretch than Concorde’s 4,500 mile capacity.
This would allow the plane to fly non-stop from the UK to Malaysia.
Meanwhile, the powerful jet is expected to fly 1.6 times faster than the speed of sound, allowing it to travel a staggering 11,000km at a time.
This means it could fly from London to New York in less than three hours.
The stealthy project also aims to reduce the sonic boom to 83.9 perceived level in decibels – equivalent to the sound of a hairdryer, according to the South China Morning Post.
That is just one-twentieth of the Concorde’s deafening boom.
Concorde was blocked from taking overland flights following noise complaints, after civilians complained it was so loud it rattled windows and spooked livestock.
Reducing the noise of the sonic boom could help it overcome regulatory barriers, and compete with rival projects from Nasa and Lockheed Martin.
The aircraft, which is yet to make it off paper and onto tarmac, could advance China’s role in the modern supersonic aviation industry.
But, while plans were revealed in March, an official launch date isn’t expected until 2049, Globe Trender reports.
Before then the firm plans to unveil the C929 – a twin-aisle jet to rival Boeing’s 787.
And by 2039 it plans on rolling out a massive 400-seater C939 to compete with Boeing’s 777X.
While it’s quieter than Concorde, it will fit just 28 to 48 passengers in its business class configuration – compared with the Nasa jet’s 100-strong capacity.
The C949 will also blast slightly slower than its predecessor, which managed to top 1,450mph in its heyday.
China’s Aero Engine Corporation is separately developing a hypersonic jet, known as Nanqiang No 1, that may fly six times faster than the Concorde when it takes to the skies.
The team first started working on the hypersonic jet in 2019, but are yet to make it go supersonic and reach speeds over Mach 1 (767mph).
A supersonic jet is one that can travel faster than the speed of sound at Mach 1, while a hypersonic jet is specifically five times faster, at Mach 5.
Why did Concorde fail?
CONCORDE was the supersonic passenger jet considered the ultimate luxury in air travel.
Air France and British Airways announced they would be retiring their fleet of Concorde planes on April 10, 2003.
The plane had its first commercial flight on January 21, 1976, and was retired after 27 years of service and 50,000 flights.
Several reasons led to the decision to retire Concorde.
Air France and British Airways cited low passenger numbers and high maintenance costs.
By the early noughties, the planes were outdated and expensive to run, despite being incredibly advanced when they were first introduced almost three decades previously.
The 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001 majorly impacted passenger numbers, as people opted not to fly.
Passenger numbers also fell after an Air France Concorde crashed just minutes after taking off from Paris in July 2000.
The disaster killed all 109 people on board and four others on the ground.
The plane ran over a small piece of metal on the runway, which burst a tyre and caused an engine to ignite.
It was also the only aircraft in the British Airways fleet that required a flight engineer.
Plans for C949 come as NASA’s supersonic “Son of Concorde” plane inches ever closer to take-off.
The X-59 jet will break the sound barrier when it flies – but won’t produce a sonic boom, thanks to its unique design.
When up and running, the aircraft will hurtle along at altitudes of at speeds of 937mph at 55,000 feet up.
Nasa revealed it struck another milestone in the plane’s journey toward the skies with crucial low-speed taxiing tests.
The X-59 moved around purely under its own power for the first time at US Air Force Plant 42 on July 10.
Taxiing is the final stage of ground tests before Nasa can take it up into the skies – and the maiden voyage is chalked for later this year.
