British engineers have revealed plans to launch a hypersonic aircraft to reduce ultra long haul flights to less than five hours.

The engineering company Reaction Engines, based in Oxfordshire, UK, has designed the A2 aircraft which could carry 300 passengers from Europe to Australia at a speed of almost 4,000mph (6,400km/h).

The team of project LAPCAT (Long-Term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologies), supported by European Space Agency, says the A2 vehicle could capture all of the current business and first class traffic due to the greatly reduced journey time of 4.6h compared to the current 22 hours.

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