Supersonic jet break records with a flight from London to New York in 80 minutes

Hyper Sting, remember this name as the Supersonic jet designed by Spanish designer Oscar Viñales. If you’re having second thoughts about going to work on the other continent, that’s no longer a problem. Your transatlantic flight from London to New York could take 80 minutes if you climb aboard this incredible supersonic aircraft.

©Concorde

The concept aircraft is hoped to hit speeds of more than 2,600mph – twice as fast as the legendary Concorde.

What is the Concorde?

The first commercial supersonic passenger aircraft (or supersonic transport, SST) was built jointly by the aircraft manufacturers of Britain and France. Concorde made its first transatlantic crossing on 26 September 1973 and inaugurated the world-first scheduled supersonic passenger service on 21 January 1976.

British Airways operated the London-Bahrain route and Air France the Paris-Rio de Janeiro route. The two airlines added scheduled service to Washington, D.C., in May 1976 and New York City in November 1977.

Other destinations on a temporary or seasonal basis and the Concorde was used on charter flights to destinations worldwide. However, the aircraft’s operating costs limited its service.

Financial losses led both airlines to discontinue routes, eventually leaving New York City as the only scheduled destination. Air France finally stopped operating the Concorde in May 2003 and British Airways in October 2003. We can say Concorde has broken the concept of a long-haul flight.

Today we have projects like the NASA X59 Program published by Travel Radar. The X-59 should reach a maximum speed of Mach 1.5 (940 kph) with a General Electric F414 turbofan engine generating 22,000 pounds-force of thrust.

Why the name Hyper Sting?

 Oscar Viñales said in a statement

“the shape of the aircraft influenced the name. The fuselage would have the shape of a ‘big sting’ with a very sharp ‘nose’ that would control the front airflow [pressure/speed], redistributing it over the central part and the wings.”

The Hyper Sting, at 328 feet long with a 168-foot wingspan, would dart up to 170 passengers across the Atlantic and beyond at speeds of 2,486mph — more than three times the speed of sound, which is over 100ft longer than the Concorde.

The cold fusion nuclear reactor is still in the theoretical phase. Two ramjets powered by a small nuclear reactor would propel the jet to incredible speeds.

Cold fusion nuclear systems and innovative Mach 3.5 technology. Mach is the ratio of the speed of a body to the speed of sound – Mach 1 is the speed of sound, and Mach 3.5 is about four times the speed of sound.

The aircraft would fly through the air at nearly 2,500mph, almost five times the current average speed of commercial passenger aircraft, which take up to eight hours to fly from London to New York. The Hyper Sting will take one hour and 20 minutes to reach its destination in New York from London.

The Concorde Legacy

Concorde, the first commercial Supersonic carrier, was powered by four Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593 turbojets and completed London to New York route in a record two hours, 52 minutes and 59 seconds.

Several companies are developing supersonic passengers, including Boom, Spike, and Hermeus. Today we have many aircraft, like American Airlines, who announced an agreement to purchase Boom Supersonic. The NASA X59 will operate its first flight late this year; United Airlines purchased nineteen supersonic from Boom.

While Oscar’s designs are currently theoretical, he explains that long-haul flight times are undoubtedly set to shorten as new advances in aviation technology enter the commercial market. Such innovative technology is now reserved for the military – the now-retired North American X-15 reached a mind-blowing speed of 4,520 miles per hour (Mach 6.7) over half a century ago.

One of the biggest challenges of the Supersonic Jet is the noise, Oscar Viñales said in the statement

“Concorde was a brilliant piece of machinery, a noble experiment, but it put too many emissions in the environment, too much noise into our communities, and was too expensive to operate,”

Sonic booms may be less of a problem thanks to NASA’s advances in sound attenuation. However, it will still not be possible for planes to fly at their maximum speed over water, making supersonic travel between US cities difficult. Experts say supersonic planes require narrow, aerodynamic engines, but it is more challenging to make them quiet enough to meet noise limits set by authorities.

Mike Leskinen, president of United Airline’s ventures, said in a statement

 “You’ve got this convergence of technology that will allow us to make economic and profitable something that was not economical and profitable with the old technology”.

What are your thoughts about the Hyper Sting? Let us know in the comments!