The Concorde Is Gone, but Supersonic Travel Is on Its Way Back

Longing for the days of glamorous supersonic travel aboard the Concorde but can't quite reconcile the need for speed with your greener side? The European firm EADS, maker of the Airbus line of planes, unveiled a possible solution this week at the Paris Air Show. The company revealed plans for a supersonic craft known as Zero Emission Hypersonic Transport, or ZEHST, which would run on algae-derived biofuel and reach a speed of Mach 4. At that speed, a flight from Paris to Tokyo would take about 2.5 hours. The drawback? It might not be ready for a few decades.

Long wait aside, it's impressive to see what fellow engineers continue to come up with. Check out the video in the panel at right. If you'd like to read more about the aircraft, check out the article in New Scientist.

What are some of the challenges that this technology may face?

Photo: EADS

Comments

May's picture

Very true. I wonder what safe guards are in the plans for this type of plane. Reliability and maintenance is also another concern.