Air travel innovation arguably started with the Wright brothers, and it hasn't slowed down since they first took flight. In fact, "slow" doesn't apply to the advances we're making in air travel at all — with Dick Rutan designing a new hyper-efficient engine that could take people from Los Angeles to Tokyo in a matter of 30 minutes.

Rutan was previously known for flying around the world in nine days without landing to refuel. He did so in a plane called Voyager, which was design by his brother, Burt Rutan.

Details about the new engine were first published in the October 2015 issue of Popular Science.  

To build the new hyper-efficient engine, Rutan has partnered with a company called Engineered Propulsion Systems. The engines are liquid-cooled, and can run on any type of fuel — "from bacon grease to diesel to traditional jet fuel," according to Dick Rutan. Not only do the engines run with 35 percent better efficiency, but they are also ultra-quiet.

Indeed, noise is one of the main things holding back commercial aviation. While the technology is there for us to build planes that travel faster than the speed of sound, they are restricted partly because they create sonic booms.

So what's the solution? Well, Rutan says that he envisions a kind of hyperloop, which would take air travel out of air altogether. The hyperloop is essentially a long series of carbon-fiber vacuum tubes, in which capsules could accelerate to a massive 10 times the speed of sound. It will be interesting to see how this develops.

Via: PopSci