London to Sydney in two hours via Space

SYDNEY – Commercial flight times could be cut more than 20-fold with a decade, following ambitious plans to transport passengers to other countries via space. Typically, a flight from London to Sydney on a commercial plane takes more than 22 hours, but suborbital flights would cut this to a mere two hours, breaking the record set by Concorde in 1985.

Aviation experts are researching how ordinary citizens would cope with short periods in zero gravity during long haul travel, like between the UK and Australia. However, passengers would face G-forces during take-off and landing, while zero-gravity mid-flight would mean they’d have to keep their seatbelts buckled. Travellers could also be advised to keep their seat tilted back during launch and ‘clench their buttocks’ as they leave and re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere.