Sorry guys, this is a hoax.
From Tuesday's Guardian Unlimited:
Update: The news blog finally made contacted with Airbus, which described the IHT article as a "fantastic story but not true".
The Airbus official went on to say: "It is not something that Airbus has been working on and if flies in the face of what we're doing with the A380, which is more room. We can assure you it is not an Airbus idea, we have not talked about it inside Airbus and our customers have not asked us about such an idea."
Airbus is now seeking a correction to the New York Times article carried by the IHT. Well, it seems there are limits to blue skies thinking.
Go to
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/arc...ll_it_fly.html for the full story