A startup company has outlined its intentions to launch a hypersonic jet that could get passengers from New York to London in just 90 minutes.
Even as someone who loves travel, the thought of being cooped up in a plane for eight or more hours isn't pleasant, and I'm sure that I'm not alone in thinking that.
As the old saying goes, travel broadens the mind, and there is absolute truth to that as nothing compares with experiencing different cultures and climates.
Sadly, most of these things are pretty far away meaning that there is a long travel time to get us to our destination - which involves getting more and more uncomfortable when on the plane.
But what if you could travel from New York to London, a 3459-mile journey that typically takes around eight hours, in just 90 minutes?
Sounds like the dream, right? Well, as reported by Insider, a European startup company called Destinus is seeking to make this a reality.
The team appeared at the Paris Air Show this month, where they showed their plans to launch a hypersonic hydrogen-powered jet.
The Destinus S will be able to hold 25 passengers and cruise at an altitude of 108,000ft, which for context, a typical Boeing 737 flies at 41,000ft.
If this didn't sound cool (or scary) enough, the aircraft is capable of traveling at five times the speed of sound.
Before you run to book your ticket, the Destinus isn't due to arrive until at least 2032, and a further model of the aircraft capable of carrying 300-400 people, known as Destinus L, will appear sometime in the 2040s.
The aircraft intends to use liquid hydrogen for fuel and a combination of turbojet and ramjet engines, with the turbojet being paired with afterburners to take Destinus from subsonic to supersonic.
Destinus' senior business development manager Martina Löfqvist said: "It's somewhere of a mix between a rocket and an airplane.
"We've been speaking with a lot of airlines and airports who also support the notion that hydrogen will be the future of aviation."
Löfqvist went on to explain that using hydrogen power is vital to the company, stating that it is three times more efficient than standard jet fuel and it doesn't release carbon emissions.
In case you're worried about the heat being generated by the engines, hydron is a good cooling agent meaning it can counteract the 1832°F being generated when traveling at top speeds.
The planes have been flying since 2021, though during the maiden flight, it apparently had a "hard landing" that required some repairs.
"We had to fix [the aircraft] after the first flight," Löfqvist said. "We know we can recover from hard landings and issues we have with these vehicles."
Maintaining the project hasn't come cheap, as the company revealed they have been providing services to the energy sector in order to fund their work.
This aircraft is set to be faster than Concorde, which was retired 20 years ago due to costs and fears about safety concerns.
Concorde could make the journey from New York to London in three hours, meaning Destinus is set to halve that.
Will you be flying on these aircraft when they're up and running?
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