China is claiming to be working on a hypersonic passenger jet that can travel anywhere in the world in three hours at speeds up to 3,800 mph.

Travelling at up to 3,800 miles an hour, more than six times the speed of a typical commercial jet and twice as fast as a supersonic aircraft, it has been developed for the Chinese military, but could be used for passengers.

Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences say they have tested a scaled-down model of the hypersonic jet in a wind tunnel, where it reached a top speed of 5,343mph.

Writing in the Physics, Mechanics and Astronomy journal, Cui Kai said: “It will take only a couple of hours to travel from Beijing to New York at hypersonic speed. “This could provide more convenient and efficient transportation than present subsonic airplanes for long-distance journeys in future.’ – The Telegraph

China recently entered into commercial passenger jet sales in a serious manner.

Featured image of a Boeing concept presented to NASA Aeronautics Research Mission by NASA