Nasa unveils quiet supersonic aircraft in effort
to revive commercial flights
In launch event on Friday, agency shared plans to test
over US cities to see if it’s quiet enough by engaging ‘the people below’
Maya Yang
Fri 12 Jan
2024 23.41 GMT
Nasa has
unveiled a one-of-a-kind quiet supersonic aircraft as part of the US space
agency’s mission to make commercial supersonic flight possible.
In a joint
ceremony with Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California, on Friday,
Nasa revealed the X-59, an experimental aircraft that is expected to fly at 1.4
times the speed of sound – or 925mph (1,488 km/h).
The
aircraft, which stands at 99.7ft (30.4 metres) long and 29.5ft wide, has a
thin, tapered nose that comprises nearly a third of the aircraft’s full length
– a feature designed to disperse shock waves that would typically surround
supersonic aircraft and result in sonic booms.
In attempts
to further enhance the aircraft’s supersonic capabilities, engineers positioned
the cockpit almost halfway down the length and removed the forward-facing
windows typically found in other aircraft.
Explaining
the configurations at Friday’s launch event, Nasa’s deputy administrator, Pam
Melroy, said: “We made that decision to make it quieter, but it’s actually an
important step forward in and of itself in advancing aviation technology.
“[With the]
huge challenge [of] limited visibility in the cockpit, the team developed the
external vision system, which really is a marvel of high-resolution cameras
feeding an ultra-high-resolution monitor.”
Melroy
added: “The external vision system has the potential to influence future
aircraft designs where the absence of that forward-facing window may prove
advantageous for engineering reasons, as it did for us.”
The
aircraft also features an engine mounted on top as well as a smooth underside
to prevent shock waves from forming behind the aircraft and causing sonic
booms.
The X-59 is
set to take its first flight later this year and then its first quiet
supersonic flight, Nasa said. The agency added that once test flights are
completed, the X-59 will fly over several cities across the US that have yet to
be selected and will collect public feedback on the sound it generates.
For the
last 50 years, commercial supersonic travel over land has been banned in the US
because of public concerns over the explosive sonic booms that could be heard
from miles away.
Addressing
that ban at Friday’s launch event, Bob Pearce – Nasa’s associate administrator
for its aeronautics research mission – said: “Grounded flight testing showed us
it was possible to design an aircraft that would produce a soft thump instead
of a sonic boom. Is that thump quiet enough to allow supersonic flight over
land? Our laboratory studies would say yes, but the real answer can only be
found by engaging the people who would hear it during daily life.”
Pierce said
the X-59’s job would be to “collect data from the people below, determine if
that sonic thump is acceptable and then turn the data over to US and
international regulatory authorities in hopes to then lift that ban”.
In the
post-launch press conference, David Richardson, Lockheed Martin’s X-59 program
director, said that taxi tests of the X-59 were expected to start around late
spring or early summer.
“If there’s
anything that we identify that is not performing nominally, we will go and make
adjustments or if there are any parts that are not functioning, we will replace
them to make sure the airplane is fully functional and airworthy and safe
before we commit it to first flight,” said Richardson.
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