A plane dubbed the ‘son of the Concorde’ that could fly from London to New York in three and a half hours has completed its eighth test.
The XB-1 jet, which engineers are hoping could reach supersonic speeds, has been undergoing test flights since March of this year.
During a flight which lasted around 54 minutes on Saturday, the plane reached an altitude of 25,040ft, surpassing its previous record of around 23,000ft.
And engineers don’t intend on stopping there. The plane is set to fly higher, and faster until it eventually reaches the speed of sound – Mach 1.
The jet’s latest test run confirmed that flying at speeds of Mach 0.8 is safe, even with the stability augmentation system turned off.
The stability augmentation system is crucial in ensuring that aircrafts are safe. It enhances flight stability by automatically adjusting its controls.
The team behind the new plane said: ‘XB-1 cleared this requirement, confirming that the pilot can safely control the aircraft at higher speeds even in the event of a stability augmentation system failure.
‘While XB-1 does have this kind of system, called the stability augmentation system, the team is assessing the aircraft with the system off at increasing speeds.
‘This is a requirement prior to supersonic flight that XB-1 successfully cleared during this flight.’
Last week, during its seventh test flight, the XB-1 reached its fastest speeds yet of Mach 0.82.
The Colorado company behind the new jet is now set to put their creation through two more test flights to confirm its performance and handling qualities.
Before it was banned in the UK, the Concorde could reach speeds of Mach 2.
For reference, modern fighter jets, which are smaller than the Concorde, fly at speeds between Mach 1.2 to Mach 2.5.
Supersonic flights were banned in the UK because they were so expensive to operate and deemed too noisy.
But now, there are an increasing number of companies trying to build suitable supersonic aircraft with regulators urged to review their bans.
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