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Is it Possible to Fly From London to Sydney in 4 hours? An Emerging Possibility is Taking Shape

By Deepthi B | Update Date: Nov 03, 2015 09:04 AM EST

The UK Government is investing a whopping £60m in a phenomenal engine that can possibly enable a plane to fly from London to Sydney in 4 hours, reports The Independent. The grant from the Government will be used to design, develop and build the Skylon super-plane that would be welcomed by frequent flyers and business tycoons.

The Independent explains that this generation-next 'Sabre' engine comes with a revolutionary hybrid rocket and jet propulsion system that can tremendously boost up acceleration. It is slated to be released over a span of 10 years, with the full ground-based engine to be tested in the year 2020. Reaction Engines is the company behind developing this revolutionary engine that is looking to bring together both the jet and rocket technologies.

According to Mail Online, with this new and powerful technology all set to take flight, London to New York could be covered in less than 2 hours. Further, this groundbreaking technology could be leveraged aptly to send even satellites into outer space in the near future at much lowered costs, a fraction of the spend today.

Further, apparently BAE systems has invested in Reaction Engines and has announced that it will be taking a 20% stake in the Oxfordshire-based company, amounting to around £20million. BAE and Reaction are in lieu to form a progressive collaboration together, that works towards the development and demonstration of the ground-based engine, reports The Independent.
According to The Independent, this innovative technology has the propensity to double up the technical limits of a jet engine, allowing the aircraft to incredibly accelerate at a racy rate of five times the speed of sound, before switching to a rocket engine and thrusting off into the open wide skies.

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