NASA’s development of a supersonic aircraft that will not create a loud sonic boom has suffered another setback, as its first flight has been postponed to 2024.
A collaboration between NASA and Lockheed Martin Skunk Works to produce an experimental aircraft that can travel at supersonic speeds without the noise nuisance, has so far presented various challenges for its creators. Taking known technology, such as landing gear from the F-16 and the F-15’s life support, and integrating it with new components to create a new whole, dubbed the X-59, has been one of them.
Primitive test method?
Progress detailed by NASA in press statements over the last year includes a final design for the tail structure and taking the plane out of assembly and into the flight line. These steps now being complete means that electrical wiring, ground and structural testing can begin to take place.
One of the tests to be conducted may seem remarkably primitive. To determine whether the project team has been successful in reducing the sonic boom generated by the plane when it flies faster than the speed of sound, the aircraft will be flown over a range of communities where people’s reactions will be monitored. The aim is to share that data with US and international regulators in charge of the rules that currently prohibit supersonic flights over land for commercial purposes.
Revolutionary race
The prime function of the testing though is to ascertain that the X-59 is safe before it flies and during and after the community test phase. After integrated testing, come flight readiness exercises, and at that stage NASA will make public the schedule leading to the inaugural flight.
All that work is to fulfill the goal of revolutionizing commercial aviation travel through the significantly shorter flight durations achieved by supersonic travel. But NASA and Lockheed Martin are not the only ones on a race to achieve that.
Boom Supersonic
Boom Supersonic, based in Colorado and testing out of the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, is working on a craft it’s calling the XB-1, which, if successful, will become the world’s first independently-produced supersonic jet, even if the brand name does not suggest a quiet supersonic flight.
Featuring three General Electric J85 engines, plus “carbon fiber composites and titanium, advanced avionics, and digitally-optimized aerodynamics to enable sustainable supersonic travel,” the XB-1 is also a test-bed for a range of game-changing aviation technology and, putting the pressure on NASA, has just gained an airworthiness certificate.
