Airbus, Rolls-Royce, Siemens working on hybrid plane

Airbus, Siemens and Rolls-Royce are teaming up to develop a hybrid passenger plane that would use a single electric turbofan along with three conventional jet engines running on aviation fuel.

The plane is an effort to develop and demonstrate technology that in the future could help limit emissions of carbon dioxide from aviation and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. The three companies today said they aim to build a flying version of the E-Fan X technology demonstrator plane by 2020.

The aircraft would be based on the existing BAe 146 four-engine regional jet.

The hybrid version would generate electric power