NASA and Lockheed Martin present silent supersonic aircraft
NASA and Lockheed Martin have presented a new supersonic aircraft: the X-59. The aircraft is 30 meters long, nine meters wide and can reach a maximum speed of approximately 1,500 km/h. It is the first aircraft that can fly through the sound barrier without making a loud bang.
The nose of the X-59 takes up about a third of the total length of the aircraft. The aircraft’s engines are also mounted at the top, giving the supersonic aircraft a ‘smooth’ underside. These adjustments would be made according to NASA must ensure that a less loud bang will be heard when the aircraft flies through the sound barrier. Because the nose is so long, it did not have any windows to look forward. The cockpit is equipped with a camera system that allows pilots to see ahead via a 4k video feed.
The X-59 is part of the QueSST mission. Through this mission, the American space agency wants to demonstrate that it is possible to organize supersonic flights without generating a loud bang that can be heard all the way to the ground. The space agency will conduct several test flights with the X-59 in the United States and then examine how people on the ground react to the sound the aircraft produces as it flies through the sound barrier. This data will then be shared with the Federal Aviation Administration and international aviation organizations so that they can determine possible noise standards for supersonic flights over land.
Lockheed Martin started building the X-59 in 2018. Two years earlier, in 2016, the American aircraft manufacturer had also been commissioned by NASA to build a silent supersonic aircraft. Then it was a preliminary design that could be used as a prototype to create the final QueSST aircraft.
Between 1976 and 2003, Air France and British Airways operated supersonic passenger flights with the Concorde. Only twenty examples of the aircraft were made, including the six prototypes that were not suitable for commercial flights. The Concorde reached a maximum speed of Mach 2.04, or 2179 km/h. The flight from London to New York could be made in about 3.5 hours.
In 2003, the airlines stopped Concorde flights. Passenger numbers had fallen after the 2000 crash, in which a plane caught fire shortly after takeoff, killing all on board. The maintenance of the aircraft had also become expensive and there was a lot of commentary about the noise pollution caused by the supersonic flights.
Lockheed Martin and NASA’s X-59 aircraft