Alan Bond chief designer of the Skylon said the breakthrough on creating a device that can cool the air entering an engine allowing it to operate normally at speeds of Mach 5 will transform high speed aviation. quot;It enables an aeroplane very much a fast aeroplane but an aeroplane nonetheless to take off accelerate at up to five times the speed of sound turn itself subtly into a rocket fly into orbit do a job and come back again. The second thing it enables is a very high speed terrestrial aircraft. For example an aircraft carrying 300 passengers could go from Europe to Australia in about four hours.quot; He said quot;We are looking at a revolution in transportation equilvent to the jet engine. quot;Once youve got access to space on that basis that is the stepping stone to anywhere in the universe and a very exciting future for the human race.quot;