EADS, the parent company of aircraft-maker Airbus, has unveiled initial plans for a hypersonic jet that could travel between New York City and Paris in just under two and a half hours.

The project calls for the development of an aircraft that would travel just outside of the Earth's atmosphere and emit little to no pollution.

The conceptual project has been dubbed ZEHST, which stands for Zero Emission High Speed Transport.

While officials admit that commercial flights on the aircraft could still be decades away, they are adamant that the technology involved isn’t simply the stuff of science fiction. 

"ZEHST has no novelty, it is all things that have been created before," said Jean Botti, chief technical officer for the company. A unmanned prototype could be launched as early as 2020.

Source: MSNBC