Holidaymakers will be able to fly from London to Sydney in just two hours within ten years – but they’ll have to go via space

Holidaymakers will be able to fly from London to Sydney in as little as two hours within ten years – but they will have to go through space. 

The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is funding medical studies into the effects of suborbital space flights, in which travellers could be thrown into space for a short time period before descending to their destination much quicker than via airplane.

Suborbital flights, such as those offered by Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, currently cost more than £350,000 per seat. 

But regulators have predicted they will soon be less expensive, eventually becoming intercontinental travel option ‘accessible to anybody’. 

According to The Sunday Times, a CAA-funded study found that most people handled the G-forces of suborbital space flights well. 

Published in the journal Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance, it said: ‘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, e.g. London to Sydney in less than two hours.’ 

Flights from London to Sydney currently take around 22 hours. 

The research, conducted with King’s College London and facilitated by the RAF, found that those taking such flights would not need to be fit or young – with older people possibly better at dealing with space travel. 

Suborbital flights, such as those offered by Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, currently cost more than £350,000 per seat

The CAA is funding medical studies into the effects of suborbital space flights, in which travellers could be thrown into space for a short time period before descending to their destination much quicker than via airplane

Dr Ryan Anderton, the CAA’s medical lead for flight, said: ‘Physiological responses are likely to be benign for most passengers,’ adding that older people usually have slightly ‘stiffer arteries’, which would lessen the pooling of blood away from the brain. 

A failed attempt in January to launch satellites from UK soil has not stopped plans to turn Britain into a spaceforming nation. 

Spaceport Cornwall has signed a memorandum of understanding with US firm Sierra Space for spaceplanes to land in Newquay, while six more UK spaceports are in the works.