Engineers plan Paris to Tokyo flight in 3 hours

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. 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 US Patent Office.