At present, a flight between Sydney and London takes about 22 hours. - Reuters
SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): In the time you take to fly between Singapore and Bangkok, you might be able to zip from Sydney to London.
Such a possibility could be within reach in the next 10 years, according to new research.
But there is a catch: Your plane would have to travel via space. This means you would be sent into space before descending to your destination.
This would slash an existing 22-hour flight to just around two hours.
New research is looking into the effects of such sub-orbital space flights, according to London-based newspaper The Times.
The research is being funded by Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
Sub-orbital flights now cost more than £350,000 (S$585,500) a seat, and are offered by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Mr Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.
But regulators believe such flights could become an intercontinental travel option “accessible to anybody”.
The CAA-funded research was published in the journal Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance.
It said: “Commercial sub-orbital space flights are now available for tourism and scientific research, and are ultimately anticipated to mature into extremely fast point-to-point travel, for example, London to Sydney in less than two hours.”
The study said people taking such flights would not need to be super-fit or young.
As part of the research, 24 healthy people were exposed to the G-forces that would be felt during the launch and descent of a sub-orbital flight.
One G is the force of Earth’s gravity.
During ascent, the G-forces could reach four times the usual force of Earth’s gravity for 20 to 30 seconds.
The G-forces peaked at 6G during descent for 10 to 15 seconds. That is six times the ordinary force of the Earth’s gravity.
Such forces can create several effects in the human body, such as a heavy sensation in the chest and blood pooling away from the brain.
According to the study, one of the 24 participants briefly lost consciousness, but there were no lasting ill effects.
“Physiological responses are likely to be benign for most passengers,” Dr Ryan Anderton, the CAA’s medical lead for space flight, told The Times.
He said that while astronauts need to be extremely fit and undergo years of intensive training, tourists on sub-orbital flights of the future would not need to fulfil such requirements.
He did point out, however, that certain medical problems could make experiencing high G-forces dangerous.
“What we’re trying to do in research is determine which individuals might be more susceptible and what we might have to screen them for,” Dr Anderton told The Times.
