Nine seats, a 400-kilometre range, and no kerosene – those are the pitches aircraft makers are racing to deliver by the end of the decade. It won't replace the Boeing you flew to Lisbon on this summer. But the shorter hop after that one might not burn any fuel at all.

Vaeridion from Munich is currently leading the race, and its numbers are what make it do so. The company has already signed a pre-application contract with EASA, the European aviation safety regulator, and thereby committed itself to achieving........

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