Commercial flights between countries could be significantly shortened to only a couple of hours through suborbital flights, according to recent studies by aviation experts.
Suborbital flights are expected to become an accessible intercontinental travel option that could potentially be available within a decade. For example, a commercial flight from London to Sydney that usually takes over 22 hours could be reduced to two hours with this technology, breaking the record set by Concorde in 1985.
However, passengers may experience discomfort such as G-forces during take-off and landing and may have to keep their seatbelts fastened during the flight’s zero-gravity mid-flight period.
The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) recently conducted a study that looked at the effects of suborbital space flights on the human body. The research, published in the Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance journal, revealed that most people can cope with the G-forces of suborbital space flights, but there can be potentially problematic physiological responses.
Dr Ryan Anderton, the CAA’s medical lead for space flight, stated that commercial suborbital space flights would happen sooner than people think, within a decade or less.
The study used a human centrifuge at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire to simulate the effects of high acceleration on 24 healthy individuals of different ages.
Participants exposed to space launch-style G-forces exhibited dynamic changes in heart rate, blood pressure and cardiac output, along with hypoxemia, which is a low level of oxygen in the blood.
Although most participants coped with the experience, respiratory and visual symptoms, including greyout, were common. One participant experienced G-force induced loss of consciousness (G-LOC) but regained consciousness when the G-force reduced.
The new research is still ongoing and while suborbital flights currently would cost over £350,000 per seat, experts anticipate that these prices will soon drop, making it a more accessible mode of transportation.
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