{"id":650209,"date":"2026-06-21T07:43:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T07:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/650209\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T07:43:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T07:43:06","slug":"london-to-sydney-flights-twice-as-fast-as-concorde-on-the-horizon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/650209\/","title":{"rendered":"London to Sydney flights twice as fast as Concorde on the horizon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Machrihanish, a former RAF base on the Kintyre Peninsula, has previously hosted testing of Concorde and the B-2 stealth bomber. The airspace is far less congested<\/a> than Cornwall and it is just a 20-minute flight from Glasgow airport.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only flights are the occasional private flights for people like Paul McCartney, who lived nearby, and the air ambulance service,\u201d said Mr Stevenson.<\/p>\n

\u201cRemoteness is a huge plus when you\u2019re test-flying aeroplanes and testing rocket engines, and we\u2019re pretty much at the end of the road in Kintyre, but you can be in Glasgow in 20 minutes and back in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The design phase for Invictus is expected to be completed this year, with testing of smaller-scale engines and hydrogen systems scheduled for next year and propulsion trials towards the end of the decade.<\/p>\n

The first flight could take place by 2034 at slower speeds, followed by true hypersonic testing by 2036. If all goes to plan, Invictus would break the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird\u2019s record for the fastest and highest-flying operational manned jet aircraft.<\/p>\n

James Cornish, space business development manager at Frazer-Nash, which is acting as the prime contractor, said: \u201cInvictus\u2019s primary roles are enabling runway-based access to space, such as future spaceplanes and flexible satellite launch.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will support defence applications by testing propulsion, materials and control systems at extreme speeds. While it is not a passenger aircraft, the technologies it proves could ultimately underpin much faster long-haul travel in future civil platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Machrihanish, a former RAF base on the Kintyre Peninsula, has previously hosted testing of Concorde and the B-2…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2410,5878,59,50,90,200,5438,208138,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-650209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-aviation","tag-european-space-agency","tag-gb","tag-news","tag-science","tag-scotland","tag-standard","tag-sunday-telegraph-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}