Hypersonic plane could fly from Europe to Australia in 90 minutes
The German aerospace agency DLR has given once-ditched plans for a hypersonic space plane the Lazarus treatment.
The decade-old plan has been given new life by a roadmap recently unveiled by the agency for development and flights within the next 20 years.
Christened the SpaceLiner, the craft is intended to carry passengers between Europe and Australia in under 90 minutes. Test flights are planned to begin in the 2030s.
The SpaceLiner is proposed to launch much like NASA's Space Shuttle. Once at an appropriate cruising altitude, the plane itself will detach from a reusable rocket engine, whereupon it is hoped to reach speeds of 4.3 miles per second and then land more or less like a regular plane.
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