JFK to CDG in 57 Mins

Bring it on.

From Untapped Cities...

[T]he A2, a planned hypersonic plane that will go from NYC to Paris in 57 minutes. The A2 is part of a project called LAPCAT II by the European Space Agency (ESA). The aim of the project is to “reduce the duration of antipodal flights (that is, flights between two diametrically opposite points on the globe) to less than two to four hours.” 

To accomplish the goals, the aircraft must travel at speeds between Mach 5 and Mach 8 (5577 to 8912 miles/hour). As a comparison, the advised Mach speed for the Concorde was 2.0. The airplane would be 139 meters long and could carry 300 passengers, with engines powered by hydrogen and oxygen. The engine itself is already being used on the Ariane rocket, but the LAPCAT II engineers are still looking for a way to cool the engine down enough so that it the oxygen can react with the hydrogen. They hope to test the engine in flight by 2019.