Australia to London in four hours!

Australia to London in just over 4 hours or New York to London in just over 1 hour.

That is the possibility from Airbus which has just registered a patent for a supersonic jet capable of traveling at Mach 4.5.

Airbus, whose heritage companies built the Concorde which ceased operations in 2003, proposes an aircraft that use three different types of engine that will propel it at twice the speed of Concorde.

Superb Concorde anniversary video

Youtube video on Airbus supersonic patent

According to the patent the "ultra-rapid air vehicle and related method of aerial locomotion," is a three stage engine process.

First the aircraft would take off using turbojets and after take-off these would retracted.

Then - and this is not for faint hearted - a single rocket would propel the aircraft vertically to 100,000ft.

Once the aircraft reaches that altitude, which is more thna twice as high as where conventional commercial aircraft cruise, two ramjets would be deployed and speed the aircraft to March 4.5 or 3000mph or 5,372km/hr.

According to Sputnicknews.com Airbus has beaten the sonic boom because when the aircraft is travelling vertically to its cruise altitude the boom will travel horizontally across the atmosphere, not downward towards the ground.

Concorde’s sonic boom was one its major problems as well as the cost which kept it out of the reach of normal travellers.