Sky News: Plans for a hypersonic jet that can fly from Paris to New York in 90 minutes have been unveiled at the Paris Air Show. The plane, which is not scheduled to be available for commercial use until 2050, will be run on a seaweed-based fuel rather than kerosene, which is currently most commonly used.
EADS, the team behind the new plane - which could fly up to 100 passengers at more than four times the speed of sound - has decided to use a mixture of biofuel, hydrogen and water.
Labelled 'Zehst' (an acronym for Zero Emission Hypersonic Transportation), EADS believe the jet will reach speeds of 3,125mph and slash travel times. The aircraft, which would reach Australia from England in about three hours, will fly just outside the earth's atmosphere, at about 20 miles up.
But it won't come cheap. EADS say that they expect their jets to be used by a similar clientele Concorde enjoyed - so don't expect prices to be much lower than £5,000 ($8,080) a head. They have been working on the plane for five years already, and are hopeful of performing test flights in 2020.
Meanwhile, Airbus had an unfortunate and embarrassing start to the Paris Air Show after two of its flagship aircraft were forced to withdraw from the influential exhibition.
The new A400M military transporter - also known as the Grizzly - was pulled out after a technical fault, with the A380 following later on Sunday.
"We have problems with the gearbox, but the test aircraft keep flying," Domingo Urena, chief executive of Airbus Military, said of the A400M. "We have very demanding flight-test requirements at the moment."
Airbus suffered a second mishap when the wing of a display A380 'touched' a structure the near the taxiway at Le Bourget Airport.
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