Rocket plane to change air travel

EUROPEAN aerospace giant EADS yesterday unveiled its Zero Emission Hypersonic Transportation (Zehst) rocket plane it hopes will be able to fly from Paris to Tokyo in two-and-a-half hours by about 2050.

“I imagine the plane of the future to look like Zehst,” EADS’ chief technical officer Jean Botti said as the project was announced at Le Bourget airport the day before the start of the Paris International Air Show.

The low-pollution plane is designed to carry between 50 and 100 passengers and will take off using normal engines powered by biofuel made from seaweed, before switching on its rocket engines at altitude.

The rocket engines, powered by hydrogen and oxygen, whose only exhaust is water vapour, propel the plane to a cruising altitude of 32 kilometres, compared to today’s passenger jets, which fly at about 10,000 metres.

“You don’t pollute, you’re in the stratosphere,” Botti said.

To land, the pilot cuts the engines and glides down to Earth before re-igniting the regular engines in advance of landing. It will use existing technology and is being developed in collaboration with Japanese engineers.

A four-metre model of the plane, which resembles the Concorde, will be on show at Bourget for the aerospace showcase, which begins today and opens to the general public on Friday.