Yea, as cool as this would be I have some serious doubts about this, especially since they said they want to put passengers on this thing? The SR-71 reached a max speed of mach 3.4, but it was flying at extremely high altitudes where the air is very thin and the pilot had to wear what's essentially a space suit. Not to mention the plane being made entirely of titanium because during flight the surface temperature of the plane's body was so hot, that any other metal would start to lose it's structural soundness. I have no doubts that technology has massively improved since the 60s, but I don't think it's improved to the point to where we're going to be flying at mach 4 from Beijing to New York like they say. If they end up showing it off later down the line and it can actually do that, well holy shit.
I don’t disagree per se, but the article says that the plane operates at 20,000 meters ceiling, Wikipedia says SR-71 had 26,000m operational ceiling, so this thing is high up, but not as high as the blackbird. Not sure how much of a difference that makes for the air and heat issues.
The company that makes this thing is making ballistic super sonic rockets for China, so I think the implication in the article is that this thing is basically a rocket with wings.
Yea, as cool as this would be I have some serious doubts about this, especially since they said they want to put passengers on this thing? The SR-71 reached a max speed of mach 3.4, but it was flying at extremely high altitudes where the air is very thin and the pilot had to wear what's essentially a space suit. Not to mention the plane being made entirely of titanium because during flight the surface temperature of the plane's body was so hot, that any other metal would start to lose it's structural soundness. I have no doubts that technology has massively improved since the 60s, but I don't think it's improved to the point to where we're going to be flying at mach 4 from Beijing to New York like they say. If they end up showing it off later down the line and it can actually do that, well holy shit.
I don’t disagree per se, but the article says that the plane operates at 20,000 meters ceiling, Wikipedia says SR-71 had 26,000m operational ceiling, so this thing is high up, but not as high as the blackbird. Not sure how much of a difference that makes for the air and heat issues.
The company that makes this thing is making ballistic super sonic rockets for China, so I think the implication in the article is that this thing is basically a rocket with wings.