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With Elon Musk predicting that ‘up and down’ flights to Mars will launch in the first half of 2019, his company which was a mere dream 10-15 years ago is now winning the race to colonise Mars. Little do people know is that these Mars rockets will be using the same technology that Elon Musk could one day use to launch his own airline.

Let’s skip current air travel times, and let’s skip supersonic travel such as Boom aircraft which will in the next 10 years travel from London to New York in 2-3 hours for the same price of a business class ticket.

What Elon Musk plans is literally on another level. With his BFR rockets, a flight from London to New York would take 25 minutes, and Los Angeles to Sydney would take 50 minutes. What is even more exciting is that the technology to power these flights are already being developed. I am going to delve into what these flights could be like and if they will ever come to exist.

What would the flight experience be like?

By watching the video above, the first thing that comes into my mind is how will passengers sit in the spacecraft? With a vertical launch at 18,000mph, seating is clearly going to be very different to what you would see on an American Airlines Boeing 777. The chances are you will look like a spaceman whilst flying on this aircraft – so despite the incredibly quick flight times there is going to be training required to fly the aircraft and you will have to wear a spacesuit – it will be interesting to see how these problems are dealt with.

With the launch of BFR earth to earth flights, we could see for the first time intercontinental commuting

Also due to the flight time – we expect there would just be one class of seating. With all flight times under 1 hour, a flat bed probably isn’t going to be needed.

How much would tickets cost?

No one knows for sure, but according to Dinkin’s estimate with the passenger part of the BFR craft being able to hold around 850 passengers in a one-class configuration, and the average cost of a single launch coming in at $1,055,000, that would mean a price of $1200 per seat. But with economies of scale and competition, this could come down significantly over time.

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What could this mean for the world?

With the launch of BFR earth to earth flights, we could see for the first time intercontinental commuting. With the prices for these flights being on par with economy tickets there would be no reason to say that you could live in Hawaii for the weather, yet work in New York 5 days a week – with a one way flight between New York and Hawaii taking just 35 minutes – this time is probably a lot quicker than most commutes in big cities around the world today.

How possible is this?

Now, this is what everyone wants to know – how possible are earth to earth BFR flights? Right now this entire idea of intercontinental space flights seems like a fantasy. The good news is that compared with a normal rocket SpaceX BFR rockets are 100% reusable so they are more like a plane than a rocket. Furthermore, the prototype BFR rockets are already under development so time will tell.

With up and down Space X flights rumoured to launch in the first part of 2019 and with the BFR rockets due to begin testing in the early 2020’s it is hard to tell when intercontinental flights will become a thing. My estimate is that we could see the first test flights for intercontinental passenger travel in the 2040’s – so, for now, you will just have to suck up the long flight times, or in a few years try and fly on Boom supersonic flights.

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How much of his plans are for press and media attention?

Elon Musk has come under fire recently during the Thai caves rescue operation – with people thinking his proposed idea for a submarine was just to get free press from the back of a near tragedy. With this being said, Elon Musk has already achieved a lot with SpaceX, Tesla and Paypal so despite his intercontinental travel concept looking like a fantasy we think one day in the near future it will become a reality.

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