As it stands, flying from Sydney to London is mid. The flight takes around 24 hours. You become a frozen sandwich, trapped in a rattling seat. And when you get there, there’s a strong chance you won’t be well rested.
However, the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) believes that this trip might slay in the future. ‘Cause these folks think that commercial suborbital flights could cut such trips down to just hours.
Suborbital flights are trips that go into space but then quickly re-enter our atmosphere. These flights can go up super fast, but not fast enough to launch you into the sun.
“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,” asserted the CAA. “E.g. London to Sydney in less than two hours.”
What’s more, the CAA recently assessed if suborbital flights would be safe for people who aren’t astronauts. They have since stated that you probably won’t need to be young and spry to take one of these flights. In fact, they believe that older people might be better at doing such travel.
According to Dr Ryan Anderton, the CAA’s Consultant Space Medicine, “Physiological responses are likely to be benign for most passengers.”
Additionally, this hypothesis was backed up by Dr Ross Pollock, a lecturer in aerospace physiology at King’s College London.
“We have found that the g-force you experience during suborbital flight is well tolerated in healthy individuals up to the age of 80 years old, and the physiological response is relatively benign,” said Pollock.
“Assuming someone has relatively good health, they are likely to be able to take a suborbital flight, although further research is needed to determine whether this is the case for people with underlying health conditions.”
However, we’re still a hot minute from commercial suborbital flights becoming a real thing. So, if you need to travel from Sydney to London in 2023, misery’s still your best bet.
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