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from the L.A. Times

Biofuel-powered EADS hypersonic passenger jet concept debuts at Paris Air Show

The new conceptual passenger aircraft from EADS will be able to get from Tokyo to Los Angeles in 2 1/2 hours by cruising at Mach 4 speeds up in the Earth’s atmosphere. But that’s not what has some environmentalists googly-eyed.

The Zero Emission Hyper Sonic Transport, proposed by the aircraft manufacturer and Airbus parent at the Paris Air Show this week, would run in part on liquid hydrogen and biofuel.

Demonstration technologies could be ready by the end of this decade, EADS said, though the jet wouldn’t be commercially ready until mid-century.

Read about more clean-fuel developments from the show at the Times’ Greenspace blog.

Up in the air...in an all-electric plane

-- Tiffany Hsu

Photo: A model of the Zero Emission Hyper Sonic Transport is prepared on the EADS stand at Le Bourget airport near Paris a day before the opening of the Paris International Air Show. Credit: Eric Piermont / AFP/Getty Images