Flying from London to New York in 80 minutes could become a reality in the future with jaw-dropping ideas for a new supersonic nuclear-powered plane.
The Hyper Sting concept has been dreamt up by Spanish designer Oscar Viñals who has said that in years to come it could fly 170 passengers at more than three times the speed of sound, or 2,486mph – nearly twice that of Concorde.
A ‘cold fusion nuclear reactor’ is a theoretical concept at the moment, but he explained that this innovative system would enable a Mach 3.5 capability, which would power two ramjet engines and four next gen hybrid turbojets. The Hyper Sting would be much bigger than Concorde, with a length of 328ft, which is over 100ft longer than Concorde, and a wingspan of 169ft, compared to Concorde’s 85ft.
Mr Viñals explained: ‘Concorde was a brilliant piece of machinery, a noble experiment, but it put too much emissions in the environment, too much noise into our communities, and was too expensive to operate. A new era of supersonic flight might be just around the corner, but there are challenges to overcome when it comes to flying faster than the speed of sound. The Hyper Sting is a new concept for future supersonic commercial airplanes.’
Video: Concept plane aims to travel at three times the speed of sound
‘Today, there are some projects for a new era of supersonic flights from different private and public initiatives, some of those are well underway and could become in few years in a real concept.’
The design’s name comes from the shape of the aircraft, as Mr Viñals explained: ‘The fuselage would have the shape of a “big sting” with a very sharp “nose”, that would have the function to control the front airflow (pressure/speed), in order to redistribute it over the central part and over the wings.’
While he believes his dream could become a reality, the Barcelona designer is aware that there would first need to be some advances in technology.
He said: ‘Supersonic flights will return, but in this case due to some very innovative systems, like the cold fusion reactor, the date of a possible production, would be over 2030 and the cost would not be cheap.’
Hyper Sting specifications
Capacity: 130-170 passengers
Length: 328 ft 4 in (100.03 m)
Wingspan: 168.63 ft 0 in (51.40 m)
Maximum speed: 2,664 mph (4,287 km/h, 2,315 kn) (Concorde: 1,354mph)
Maximum speed: Mach 3.5 (temperature limited)
Cruise speed: 2,486 mph (4,000 km/h, 2,160 kn)
Service ceiling: 65,616 ft (20,000 m)
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