Could we be flying across the Atlantic in a nuclear-powered plane in just 80 minutes?

With jaw-dropping ideas for a new supersonic nuclear-powered plane, flying from London to New York in 80 minutes could become a reality in the future.

The Hyper Sting concept was created by Spanish designer Oscar Vials, who claims that in the future it will be able to fly 170 passengers at more than three times the speed of sound, or 2,486mph – nearly twice the speed of Concorde.

A ‘cold fusion nuclear reactor’ is currently a theoretical concept, but he explained that this innovative system would enable a Mach 3.5 capability, powering two ramjet engines and four next-generation hybrid turbojets.

The Hyper Sting would be much larger than Concorde, with a length of 328 feet (over 100 feet longer than Concorde) and a wingspan of 169 feet (compared to Concorde’s 85 feet).
‘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,’ Mr Vials explained.

Today, there are some projects for a new era of supersonic flight from various private and public initiatives, some of which are well underway and may become a real concept in a few years.’

Mr Vials explained that the name comes from the shape of the aircraft: ‘The fuselage would have the shape of a “big sting” with a very sharp “nose,” with the function of controlling the front airflow (pressure/speed), in order to redistribute it over the central part and over the wings.’

While the Barcelona designer believes his dream could become a reality, he recognizes that technological advances are required first.

‘Supersonic flights will return, but due to some very innovative systems, such as the cold fusion reactor, the date of possible production would be after 2030, and the cost would not be cheap,’ he said.