Swiss firm Destinus has been diligently working on the development of a hypersonic hydrogen aircraft for several years, aiming to transform the intercontinental travel experience by dramatically cutting flight durations. With this technology, passengers can look forward to drastically reduced flight times, such as 4 hours and 15 minutes from Sydney to Frankfurt (down from 20 hours), 3 hours and 30 minutes between South America and Dubai (compared to 14 and a half hours), and just over 3 hours from Tokyo to Memphis (rather than almost 13 hours).
In addition to conventional drones and satellites, a new unmanned aerial vehicle capable of surveillance operations could soon be deployed by the UK military. The British-developed drone, called PHASA-35, has the unique ability to fly in the stratosphere, which is not used by other conventional aircraft.
Although it would only take passengers up to thirty kilometres, it would also be much cheaper than a real space trip. If the title sounds familiar, it’s not a coincidence, as World View Enterprises is the third company in recent years to solve the problem of high-altitude travel by balloon.