Elon Musk unveils plans to use SpaceXs mega-rocket to travel anywhere on Earth in under an hour

SpaceX's founder, Elon Musk, presented his vision for getting people to Mars within five years at the International Astronautical Congress in the South Australia city of Adelaide on Friday.

The spaceship, dubbed the BFR, would carry about 100 people into outer space, but at the end of his presentation he floated the idea of using it to fly anywhere around the world in less than 60 minutes.

He painted a picture of people boarding a ship in New York City to head out to a launchpad in the Hudson River, where they take a 7,400-mile flight from the Big Apple to Shanghai in just 39 minutes.

The most popular long-haul flights could be completed in under 30 minutes, Musk said - from Los Angeles to New York in 25 minutes; Melbourne, Australia, to Singapore or New York to London in 29 minutes; New York to Paris in 30 minutes; and Sydney to Cape Town, South Africa, in 35 minutes or all the way to Zurich in 50 minutes.

Follow Tech Insider: On Facebook