Inside the plans for a Chinese hypersonic plane that will fly from London to New York in less than two hours

The news this week that a Chinese company has test flown a prototype for a hypersonic passenger aircraft that could whisk 70 passengers across the Atlantic in 90 minutes as early as 2027 has understandably made headlines around the world. The prospect of an Atlantic hop of under two hours and a more leisurely four-hour flight from London to Sydney is mindblowing – the added detail from makers Lingkong Tianxing Technology that the Yunxing will take off and land vertically is straight 1950s science fiction comic territory. It’s not just that building a hypersonic passenger aircraft is a massive technical challenge that has never even been attempted before – there are dozens of reasons that make it very nearly impossible. open image in gallery A hypersonic passenger aircraft is a massive technical challenge that has never even been attempted before China has only ever built two Boeing/Airbus-standard jet-engined passenger planes, and they have only flown in commercial service in the past few years. Both took a long time to come to market and they’re competing against rivals with better aircraft that have long safety records and loyal customers.” open image in gallery Concorde takes off from Heathrow for its last ever west-bound flight in 2003 It's not hard to see, then, how a hypersonic Chinese passenger plane by 2027 is a little unlikely.