Air travel 2.0: New 'spacecraft' will take two hours to reach Oz

A revolutionary spaceship that will allow holidaymakers to reach any destination in less than two hours could become a fixture in the skies.

Michiel Mol, a Formula One tycoon and co-owner of the Force India racing team, has joined up with Dutch airline KLM to develop a spacecraft that could make weekend getaways to Australia a reality.

The revolutionary vessel would make long-haul flights a thing of the past - with journeys from London to Sydney taking a mere hour and 45 minutes.
Michiel Mol

But travellers should not change their holiday plans just yet, as organisers do not expect to have commercial space journeys in operation for another 15 to 20 years.

But tickets for the first seats on this fantastical craft have already been sold - and the first British passenger has signed up for a ticket for a spaceflight on a preliminary edition of the craft in 2014, for 'just' £60,000.

Anton Kriel, who appeared on the BBC TV programme Million Dollar Traders, has already booked his seat, and has said he will go through astronaut training to prepare for the flight.

So far, 35 globe-trotters, all of whom must go through a minor physical examination before getting on board, have bought tickets for the first set of flights, which will take off from the Caribbean island of Curacao.

If passengers reach an altitude of 62 miles, they will be able to call themselves astronauts.

The Lynx, the project’s first generation spaceship, will travel at 2,200 mph and will be revealed next spring.

Mr Mol said: 'Being able to travel from London to Sydney in an hour and 45 minutes, that is the future.

'I think there will be millions of people who would prefer to be in Sydney in a little more than one and a half hours rather than 24 hours.'

The project will rival Sir Richard Branson’s space travel venture Virgin Galactic, which - at £130,000 a seat - makes tickets on the Lynx seem like a steal.