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London to Sydney in 90 minutes

By | January 25, 2013, 6:33 AM PST

Separation anxiety? The rocket booster separates from passengers in this artist's rendition of the SpaceLiner.

For some people, flying from London to Sydney in four hours just won’t be fast enough. So, those of you unimpressed with that tiresome 240-minute ride, maybe this will do: Germany’s space agency will get you there in 90 minutes.

According to Scientific American, the 50-passenger SpaceLiner would make the UK-to-Australia route commutable “by riding a rocket into Earth’s atmosphere, reaching 24 times the speed of sound before gliding in for a landing.”

The concept at the German Aerospace Center also calls to stop just short of space by hitting an altitude of 50 miles, to use separate orbiter propulsion after the rocket booster launch, and to glide back to earth at 15,000 miles per hour. The magazine writes,

“Many challenges still remain, including finding the right shape for the vehicle, said Martin Sippel, project coordinator for SpaceLiner at the German Aerospace Center. But he suggested the project could make enough progress to begin attracting private funding in another 10 years and aim for full operations by 2050.”

So if you’ve already booked your ticket on the four-hour supersonic cruiser planned by Boeing, NASA and others, maybe you should ask for a refund.

Image: German Aerospace Center.

If you have to settle for something slower:

More distance defying, on SmartPlanet:

By the time this plane is ready for boarding in 2050, you might want to stay off it if the passengers have a communicable bacterial disease:

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Mark Halper

About Mark Halper

Mark Halper is a contributing editor for SmartPlanet.

Mark Halper

Mark Halper

Contributing Editor

Mark Halper has written for TIME, Fortune, Financial Times, the UK's Independent on Sunday, Forbes, New York Times, Wired, Variety and The Guardian. He is based in Bristol, U.K.

Follow him on Twitter.

Mark Halper

Mark Halper

Mark has no financial holdings in the companies he writes about. He occasionally travels at the expense of companies or their press relations agencies in order to report on a company or industry event related to it; Mark will prominently disclose this information when appropriate. This relationship will have no influence on his coverage. Companies he covers do not get to review columns in advance, or select or reject topics.

He writes for SmartPlanet and is not an employee of CBS.

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Their dreaming
Tell us more about that thorium reactor the Germans tried to build. The Germans should stick with cars.

Speaking of aerospace, looks like Sir Richard Branson has a serious problem at Spaceport America in New Mexico.
Posted by kralspaces
25th Jan
+1 Vote
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A bit risky
This vehicle glides back to earth, and you only have 1 chance to land, still the space shuttle managed it I guess, but then again, I wont be the first in the queue for a ticket, I'll take my chances with deep vein thrombosis instead. =P
Posted by Mombasa69
26th Jan
+1 Vote
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kralspaces are you serious?
i would prefer to fly with something out of germany... they are obvious better in everything which is connected to industry...

better healthcare, better infrastructure, better pilots, ever better tanks.... if there is a time in which the germans do not have their restrictions anymore ... sad it is... they will beat our asses again...

as you can see boeing compared with airbus... what the ******* hell are the guys from boeing doing? delivering broken airplanes ... man... are they serious?

so thats why i would OBVIOUS prefer to have a flight with a rocket airplane build by german engeeniers... in fact ... every our industrial innovations are based on a german scientist mindset !
Posted by seocaptain
28th Jan
0 Votes
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A task
The Dutch believe, when you don't schoot (into space) you'll never hit anything. So how hard is this to find someone to be a driving force which will lead to a next generation of pilots, ready to fly and develop genious spacecrafts that have a larger impact than the depths of the stockmarkets. happy Education is the key....Every little good investment pays his money back, but to build something to last takes knowledge and attention. What will the far offspring think about todays people greed for money and speed? Some dreams can come true, Have a nice trip kids.
Posted by Elrandy
31st Jan
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