Airbus has been awarded a U.S. patent for what it calls an "Ultra-Rapid Air Vehicle" that would be propelled by a system of motors formed by turbojets, ramjets and a rocket motor.

Airbus says the aircraft would offer an improvement in performance over both the retired Concorde and the Tupolev TU-144 supersonic transports. The “Ultra-Rapid Air Vehicle” design would also reduce the incidence of sonic boom.

This new vehicle would reach near-vertical flight during its initial ascent using turbojets and the rocket motor. It also could reach a cruising speed of between Mach 4 and Mach 4.5. The jet would fly about 12 miles higher than conventional airliners.

Currently, there are no firm plans to produce the aircraft.

The aircraft would be able to finish a 9,000-mile flight in just under 3 hours and carry about 20 passengers. Military and civilian variants are proposed in the patent.

According to Airbus, the plane could use existing airports, as long as hydrogen and liquid oxygen were available for refueling.

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