Europe’s biggest aerospace manufacturer, Airbus Group, plans to drop its scale-model prototype prototype Spaceplane from an altitude of 10,000 feet (3,048 meters) over Singapore in May. If that trial goes well, another unpowered drop test — this time from 100,000 feet (30,480 m) — should follow next year, officials said. You can see concept photos of the European space plane here.

In 2007, the European company EADS (the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, now called Airbus) revealed that it had worked for two years on what it called a "space jet". The suborbital craft looked like a business jet, would take off like an airplane and, once it reached 39,000 feet (11,887 m), would use a rocket motor to power its four passengers and one pilot to 196,000 feet (59,741 m).