After many years of waiting, NASA is preparing for the maiden flight of its X-59 supersonic test aircraft. The agency recently released images showing the X-59 sitting on the ‘flight line’, the space between the hangar and the runway, at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California. The move from its construction site to the flight line is one of many milestones that prepare the X-59 for its first and subsequent flights. Next up, the team will conduct significant ground tests to ensure the aircraft is safe to fly.
The centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission, the X-59 aircraft is designed to demonstrate the ability to fly supersonic, or faster than Mach 1, while reducing the loud sonic boom to a quiet sonic thump. NASA will then fly the X-59 over several communities to gather data on human responses to the sound generated during supersonic flight.
The agency will deliver that data set to US international regulators to possibly enable commercial supersonic flight over land. According to Interesting Engineering magazine, the reduction of noise this technology brings could allow supersonic passenger flights over the continental US. So far they have been prohibited due to noise pollution.
The X-59 will be used to collect community response data on the acceptability of a quiet sonic boom.
Lockheed Martin
Since the decommissioning of Concorde, the world has lost supersonic commercial airplanes, but soon they will be able to return in new generations that are far more evolved and quieter. NASA’s X-59 is part of that development, having been designed to fly at supersonic speeds without causing the usual sonic boom, which could enhance supersonic flights over land.
This is because a supersonic plane doesn’t just make a single “sonic boom” as it passes the sound barrier but it generates a continuous boom along its entire route which can cause damage (such as breaking windows) on the ground. This is precisely why Concorde’s supersonic flights were limited to routes over the ocean, to avoid this problem. If NASA successfully demonstrates the capability of “silent” supersonic flight, it will open the door to many more commercial routes that, until now, would have been inaccessible to supersonic aircraft.
“The X-59 will be used to collect community response data on the acceptability of a quiet sonic boom generated by the unique design of the aircraft,” explained Lockheed Martin. “The data will help NASA provide regulators with the information needed to establish an acceptable commercial supersonic noise standard to lift the ban on commercial supersonic travel over land,” explains Lockheed Martin. “This breakthrough would open the door to an entirely new global market for aircraft manufacturers, enabling passengers to travel anywhere in the world in half the time it takes today.”
A single pilot is to fly the 99.7-foot-long, 29.5-foot-wide aircraft powered by a single jet engine. Its design research speed will be Mach 1.4, or 925 mph, flying at 55,000 feet. NASA will use the experimental X-59 to provide data that could change the rules that ban supersonic flight over land by proving a sonic boom can be reduced to a barely-audible sonic thump heard on the ground.
