Airbus certified to produce hypersonic plane

PanARMENIAN.Net - Airbus has won a patent for a hypersonic plane, but Concorde's hydrogen-powered successor is unlikely to leave the drawing board any time soon, Reuters reports.

The European planemaker's proposal would slash the journey time from Paris to Tokyo to under three hours, from 12 hours. The idea, first published in 2011, is to use three different kinds of engine power to hop, skip and jump above the atmosphere, yet taking off from a regular runway.

It has now won approval from the U.S. Patent Office, the website writes.

"Airbus Group and its divisions apply for hundreds of patents every year in order to protect intellectual property," a spokesman told Reuters by email. "These patents are often based on R&D concepts and ideas in a very nascent stage of conceptualization, and not every patent progresses to becoming a fully realized technology or product."

Announcing a similar proposal in 2011, Airbus Group, then known as EADS, said it would take 30-40 years to enter service, if at all. But the patent is designed to put down a marker for technology that could be useful in other developments.

Airbus says it is working on two hypersonic projects, one with Japanese partners and another with Russian and Australian involvement, with the aim of conquering speeds up to Mach 6.