The future of air travel for Canadian engineer Charles Bombardier, and his concept supersonic jet, the Skreemr, is one in which planes can fly from New York to London in 30 minutes total. His vision involves a jet that would be shot out of a magnetically charged electric-launch system at gunlike speeds. From there, the 75-passenger craft would ignite liquid oxygen in order to rise in speed and altitude until it was moving at such a rate to successfully compress incoming air for engine combustion, burning hydrogen and compressed oxygen to accelerate to an unbelievable speed of Mach 10, or about 6,600 m.p.h. at 40,000 feet (for comparison, Boeing 747s have a cruising speed of roughly 570 m.p.h.). There are a whole host of extremely difficult issues for Bombardier and his team to figure out before the Skreemr ever leaves the drawing board. For one, the group has to conjure a way to ensure passengers do not pass out from the pressure during takeoff and at the intensely high, mid-flight speeds.

Seattle-based Vulcan Aerospace is on the verge of creating the world’s largest airplane. Plans for the Stratolaunch Carrier Aircraft, a dual-fuselage, 28-wheel behemoth that measures more than 380 feet from wingtip to wingtip (roughly 120 feet wider than the Airbus A380), have been in development since 2011. Earlier this year, Vulcan began construction on the plane at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. Spearheaded by Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, the new airplane will serve as a research tool and launchpad for a variety of spacecraft. One of the most expensive and challenging parts of sending anything into space is getting it off the ground—literally. The Stratolaunch will take off like a conventional jet (notably in all sorts of weather), ascending to 30,000 feet, launching its payload, and then landing.