The Oxford-based Reaction Engines company said its working on building a supersonic engine that will take only four hours from New York to London, a trip that normally takes 8 hours.
It also can take 1 hour from West Africa to London, and 4 hours from Sydney, Australia to London, a trip of 21 hours.
The UK Space Agency reckons it is possible. The government agency has been teaming up with private companies to explore new territory in low-orbit space and hypersonic travel.
Two years ago, the UK Space Agency floated the idea of hypersonic travel after a collaboration with Oxford-based Reaction Engines produced promising results. Reaction Engines is working on a propulsion system called SABRE, which they describe as an “air-breathing rocket engine that can propel an aircraft from zero to five times the speed of sound in the atmosphere.” Reaction Engines says it has the potential to redefine travel.
“When we have brought the SABRE rocket engine to fruition, that may enable us to get to Australia in perhaps as little as four hours,” said the UK Space Agency’s Graham Turner at a conference in 2019.
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