Fly from London to New York in ½ Hour (No, Really)

Traveling to other continents is fantastic, but, truth be told, transoceanic flights can often be long and uncomfortable (especially if you aren’t able to sleep on a plane). However, thanks to an innovative new concept aircraft called Skreemr, we might be on the cusp of bidding adieu to those grueling multi-hour flights.

Imagine you’re in London, boarding a luxury aircraft that holds seventy-five passengers. It’s unlike any plane you’ve seen before, with four wings and two large rockets in the rear of the aircraft. Once you’re safely buckled it, the plane launches at an extremely high speed, thanks to the combined efforts of an electric launch system, a magnetic railgun, and liquid-oxygen or kerosene rockets. You’re soon traveling at Mach 4 (twice as fast as the Concorde, in case you were wondering), eventually reaching speeds over Mach 10 (yes, that’s ten times the speed of sound, or 7673 MPH). The best part: As soon as you’re off the ground, you’re already thinking about your descent into New York in about a half an hour.

This is Scramjet technology, currently being developed and tested by the U.S. and China for military use. Designs by Minnesota-based Ray Mattison for a future passenger plane using Scramjet technology were recently released. Granted, we civilians may have to wait a while for the rapid travel experience I describe above, but I’m a patient person… just not always on transatlantic flights.