Images: In Paris, the aircraft of the future

Another plane that's still largely on the drawing board--and that's aiming even higher--is a space plane from European aerospace company EADS Astrium. This plane will seat just four passengers, but they'll have quite a zero-gravity ride at the edge of outer space, if only for a few minutes. The company hopes to begin development next year, with flights beginning early in the next decade.

To read more about plans for the aircraft, see "Images: Space tourism, European style."

Photo by Marc Newson/NASA