First video: Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo flight and landing

In what has to be the best thing we've seen all week, Virgin Galactic has put up high-definition video of their SpaceShipTwo spaceplane's latest successful test flight.

Here it is, in all its glory -- although you may want to pop it up in another window to get the full effect in HD. The best bits start just before the 1:30 timestamp.

Over 400 people have put down cold hard cash -- up to US$200,000 for a flight -- to be first in the queue for commercial space flight.

But we're fairly certain that Australian Business Traveller readers will be most interested in the implications for regular air travel. Passengers could be speeding from Sydney to London on a Virgin Atlantic or Virgin Australia flight in four hours with this technology.

All it would need is a larger version of the current technology. The mothership + spaceship combination Virgin Galactic use is smaller than a Boeing 737 -- the size of the Pacific Blue plane below.

Picture: Phillip Capper

Just picture it being as big as the Emirates Airbus A380 in that same picture.

John Walton

Aviation journalist and travel columnist John took his first long-haul flight when he was eight weeks old and hasn't looked back since. Well, except when facing rearwards in business class.