The average flight time from London to New York is 8 hours and 13 minutes, but this can now be covered in just 80 minutes thanks to the Hyper Sting – a supersonic airliner that is touted to be much faster and bigger than the yesteryear Concorde.
The futuristic aircraft has been designed by Spanish designer Oscar Vinals. He believes 170 passengers can enjoy travel at over three times the speed of sound due to brand new systems. Vinals said innovative systems such as a Mach 3.5 capability and a theoretical cold fusion nuclear reactor can make this possible. "The Concorde was a brilliant piece of machinery, a noble experiment, but it put too much emission in the environment, too much noise into our communities, and was way too expensive to operate."
A New Era of Air Travel
The Spanish designer reckons a new era of supersonic flight might just be around the corner. "But there are challenges to overcome when it comes to flying faster than the speed of sound." Vinals believes long-haul flights will become shorter as technology develops and advances in engineering will see trips cut down dramatically.
He outlined The Hyper Sting as a new concept for future supersonic commercial airplanes. "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."
But there is the issue of cost. It will not be cheap. As such, it requires very creative and innovative systems such as the fusion reactor for it to become a possibility. The high cost hasn't deterred Vinals from dreaming big and designing future supersonic commercial airplanes. He shared that his design's name is influenced by the shape of the aircraft.
Big Sting and Sharp Nose
The aircraft's fuselage would have the shape of a "big sting" and a very "sharp nose" to control the front airflow (pressure and speed) in an effort to redistribute it over the central part and over the wings.
Vinals feels his concept is feasible but would need technological advances and lots of money as the cost of production would be considerable. He said supersonic flights will return. But because of some very innovative systems, such as the cold fusion reactor, the date of a possible production would be beyond 2030. Vinals said it would not be cheap. The small nuclear reactor would power the two ramjet engines, propelling the supersonic jet to its incredible speeds.
In the near future, the skies would feature such airliners whizzing through from continent to continent.
