Travel news: Space balloons, floating hotels and supersonic jets

August 8, 2022 World iGaming & Gambling

This week in travel, we look at innovative new transport concepts, the reopening of Thailand’s most famous beach, and flight attendants speak out about the airport chaos gripping Europe and America.

Blue sky thinking
Someone warn the Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff: If NASA has its way, booms might soon no longer shake the room.

The agency is working on Quiet SuperSonic Technology to reduce the explosion-like bang traditionally produced when planes break the sound barrier, meaning that crafts like its X-59 supersonic jet will be able to fly over land — something that’s prohibited by regulations because of the noise nuisance.

Other ambitious projects in the works include Spaceship Neptune, the “world’s first carbon-neutral spaceship,” according to its makers Space Perspective. They plan to start taking passengers on flights to the edge of space by 2024, floating aloft in a pressurized ball dangling from a giant, high-tech helium balloon.

Then there’s the video of an enormous nuclear-powered flying hotel that has been doing the rounds online. Don’t try booking a suite just yet, though — it might just breach the laws of physics.

This crazy travel summer
So first, the good news. New Zealand, Samoa and Brunei have all reopened their borders, and the Chinese gambling hub of Macao has eased its Covid restrictions. Malaysia and the Caribbean island of Martinique have also lifted all their Covid-related travel restrictions.

However, as the summer of travel chaos continues in Europe and the States, London Heathrow and Amsterdam Schiphol have announced more curbs to air traffic and the Covid risk level is up in a number of destinations, including Romania and Moldova.

Flight attendants have been speaking out on the “unsustainable and shambolic” summer air travel situation.

Spotlight on Asia
Cannabis cafes are popping up across Bangkok after the plant was decriminalized in Thailand in June. The crowds are flooding in, but not everybody’s happy with the new outlets.

Also a popular spot with backpackers, Thailand’s Maya Bay was made famous by Leonardo DiCaprio’s 2000 movie “The Beach.” Visitors were unwittingly doing huge damage to the bay’s coral reef, and it was closed for four years for a massive rehabilitation project. Now it’s open to beach-lovers once again.