A revolutionary ‘air breathing’ space plane could one day blast passengers from London to New York in less than an hour, after it passed a key hurdle this week.

Researchers at British firm Reaction Engines (REL) made a ‘pre-cooler’ work at a simulated speed of 2,500mph.

The craft uses a revolutionary ‘air breathing’ engine which can blast passengers – or cargo – into space in just 15 minutes, but which relies on cooling super-hot air very rapidly.

REL CEO Mark Thomas said, ‘We’re now able to prove many of the claims we’ve been making as a business, backed up by very high-quality data.

‘In this most recent experiment, we’ve near-instantaneously transferred 1.5 Megawatts of heat energy – the equivalent of 1,000 homes’ worth of heat energy.’

Tests were carried out at a facility at the Colorado Air and Space Port in the US.

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