When you travel abroad, instead of having to get a bus, taxi or train to the airport then wait to board the plane, imagine jumping on a capsule and not having to get out until you have flown to another country. This could be a reality if a new project, called ClipAir, becomes commercially available. The project, developed Switzerland’s EPFL aims to transform the way people and cargo travel, making the process of flying much simpler.

  Although air traffic has been increasing steadily by several per cent per year around the world, the concept of air transport has not seen any fundamental changes since the 1950s. Initiatives exploring the feasibility of futuristic modular planes could transform the way people and cargo travel.

   One of these revolutionary aircraft designs, called Clip-Air, has been created by Switzerland’s Federal Polytechnic Institute. Another is the Link and Fly concept, designed by AKKA Technologies, a....