AIRBUS has designed a “rollercoaster-plane” that could dramatically reduce the amount of time we have to spend crammed into those uncomfortable airline seats. But it’s not for the faint-hearted.

The aviation giant’s patent for the hypersonic plane, which it calls an “ultra-rapid air vehicle and related method of aerial locomotion”, has been given the tick of approval by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

The new aircraft would be capable of flying at four-and-a-half times the speed of sound (Mach 4.5).

Reaching speeds of more than 4800 kilometres per hour, that would be more than twice as fast as the Concorde, which was capable of flying at 2100km/h.

Airbus hopes to blast the Concorde record sky-high by incorporating turbojets, a rocket motor and a hydrogen power system into its new aircraft.

The three different engine types could result in the current 7-8 hour flight length between London to New York being reduced to just an hour, PatentYogi’s Deepak Gupta says. It could also cut flight times between Paris and San Francisco, or Tokyo and Los Angeles, to just three hours.

But get ready to hold on tight and get those airsickness bags handy. The plane would take off using the turbojets to propel it forward. But once it has climbed enough, the turbojets would retract and the rocket engine would be ignited at full force, causing the plane to travel vertically, Mr Gupta explains.

Meanwhile, passengers would be seated in seats designed like “hammocks”.

Airbus will need to work on the problem of the sonic boom — which affected the Concorde in the 1970s and prevented it from flying over land. It claims the design will mean the sonic boom from the jet won’t reach the ground.

While it’s yet to see if this plane will become a reality, the ideas could help transform modern aviation.