In geography, an antipode of a place on Earth is the point on the far side of the planet, that can be connected to it with a straight line running through the centre. That’s a complicated way of saying that it is as far away as possible.

In the UK, it is often used to refer to Australia or New Zealand, and those destinations are the longest long-haul flights you can take. Flight time with conventional planes from London to Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, is around 24 hours, with one stop.

Now imagine an aircraft that could do the trip in less than half-an-hour. It could revolutionise air travel, but does it have to break the laws of physics, or at least aerodynamics, to do so?