So Airbus has an American patent for a hypersonic aircraft. Stories of Europe to the Far East in less than three hours immediately leap into the media. Shades of the all-British Hotol and its more recent manifestation in the Reaction Engines' Sabre project. Certainly hypersonic propulsion is on the leading edge of aerospace, with active programmes in the US and elsewhere. At one point, the Japanese were in the field to leapfrog into a world lead. There are some signs that China may also be in the field. The US has DARPA and the USAF teamed to follow up work done on the X-51 demonstrator; but the interest here is as much directed at potential military uses as a future strategic bomber as reviving 'Concorde commuting' (any hypersonic airliner is likely to be aimed at a very high premium passenger). But let's not get too cynical too quickly: all of this is still very much in the realms of concept work. A 30-year wait for a ticket to Tokyo will make Virgin Galactic's timescale for a lob into near-space very near term.
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