Russia’s Institute of Applied Mechanics has developed a new aircraft, also known as cosmoplane. It takes off and lands like an ordinary plane, but it behaves like a spacecraft for the rest of the flight. The aerospace craft is expected to fly at heights between 100-200 kilometers and with speed as high as 30 thousand kilometers per hour. It takes the vehicle 20 minutes to fly from Moscow to Paris and 50 minutes to New York. The cosmoplane uses hypersonic engines fueled by oxygen and hydrogen. Tests of plane’s 1:25 scale model by institute’s experts proved to be successful.
      
      [URL=http://www.vor.ru/science/science_eng.html - 14 ]Voice of Russia[/URL]