Experts are trying to find a way to fly from Sydney to London in just two hours.
According to research from the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), commercial flights are about to change drastically, and we could be flying to the UK in a matter of hours in the next decade.
A flight from Sydney to London currently takes around 22 hours; however, experts believe they'll soon be able to find a way to shorten that time dramatically by travelling via space.
Advert
The CAA is funding medical studies into the effects of suborbital space flights, which would see tourists be blasted off into space before landing at their dream destination.
“Commercial suborbital space flights are now available for tourism and scientific research, and are ultimately anticipated to mature into extremely fast point-to-point travel, eg London to Sydney in less than two hours," the report said.
Research also found that passengers don't just have to be fit and young, as older and more fragile passengers could also board commercial suborbital space flights.
Dr Ryan Anderton, the CAA’s medical lead for flight, said: “Physiological responses are likely to be benign for most passengers."
Advert
However, Richard Branson said earlier this year that while commercial space travel would soon be accessible to the public, it's still 'a while off'.
"I think realistically, it is. I mean, normally, I talk ahead of myself, but I think that before it becomes like commercial airline travel it's going to take a few decades," he told LADbible exclusively.
Bruce Melnick, who twice piloted space shuttles for NASA, told the Mirror he envisioned how space travel will work and believes rockets aren't suitable for more seamless, longer trips to space.
For now, a lot of tinkering still needs to be done.
Advert
"What we really need to do, and it's a ways off in the distance future, is we need to come up with a propulsion system that is not as dynamic as what we have today, which is really nothing more than controlling an explosion through a nozzle," he said.
"We need to get a propulsion system that's more like a commercial aircraft going up so that instead of maybe taking 8.5 minutes to get to orbital velocity, it might take you 78 hours to get there, but it's a nice safe ride up there and if you have a problem on the way you can come back home and fix the problem."
Charisa Bossinakis