A Nuclear Powered ‘Concorde'?

Much larger than the Concorde, the Flash Falcon would take just three hours from London to New York. That is if it ever goes beyond the concept stage. Not only will it travel at 3 680km/h, the aircraft will be powered by nuclear fusion.

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Somewhat resembling a spaceship, the Flash Falcon, is still only one man’s concept design, no prototypes have been built and should that happen the aircraft is likely to be extremely heavy although fuel would not be a problem. Spanish designer Oscar Vinals, has designed his aircraft to fly on nuclear power, with a fusion reactor pumping energy to its six electric engines.

“I think nuclear fusion could be the best future source to obtain great amounts of electric energy,” Vinals said in an interview with BBC Future. “At the same time, it’s ‘green’ without creating dangerous waste. Today, we have a very clear idea about how nuclear fusion works; there are many projects working on it, such as Tokamak, Iter, and Stellarator. I'm very optimistic that in the next five-to-seven years we will have the first stable and productive fusion reactor.”

The Flash Falcon, Vinals’ concept imagines, would carry 250 passengers at Mach 3, in an airframe more than 130ft (39 metres) longer than a Concorde and with a wingspan twice as wide.

Its engines would even be able to tilt up to 20 degrees to help the aircraft take-off and land like a helicopter.

Is it feasible?

“Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.” Albert Einstein