NASA and Lockheed Martin have The covers were finally removed from the X-59It is a “supersonic” aircraft that could shape the future of military and civilian air travel.
The X-59 has been in development at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works for years, following a $248 million grant from NASA in 2018. This was just the first of many research programs NASA aims to fund in order to take bold steps forward in Aviation field as well. In speed, efficiency or size.
So far, the plane has only been seen in various stages of disassembly in the hangar; Today marks the first time they have been shown on the runway to the public, and of course they did important work at Lockheed’s Palmdale facility.
“In just a few years, we have gone from ambitious concept to reality. NASA’s (A press call is scheduled for later today, and this article may be updated soon to reflect feedback.)
The X-59 is an experimental aircraft, not a prototype production vehicle. The goal is to prove that a plane can fly faster than the speed of sound — in this case, 925 miles per hour — without generating the window-shaking sonic boom that results from the resulting pressure wave.
Although it is impossible to completely mitigate the impact of a large object moving through the atmosphere very quickly, the team aims to reduce the boom to a “sonic boom” that is less disruptive to people, infrastructure and wildlife.
Schlieren image of the X-59 model producing a pressure wave propagating at Mach speed. Image credits: NASA
“By demonstrating the potential for quiet commercial supersonic travel above Earth, we seek to open new commercial markets for American companies and benefit travelers around the world,” said NASA’s Bob Pierce.
It achieves this more or less through its incredibly aerodynamic shape: It’s about 100 feet long and only 29.5 feet wide, and has an arrow-like profile that’s carefully designed to refract its shock waves in flight.
One interesting consequence of this shape is that having a forward-facing window in the cockpit is impractical – it, like the nostril, needs to be greatly reduced. So the team instead installed a 4K display they call the External Viewing System, or XVS, which transmits images from the front in real time.
The plane has not taken off yet, as there are many tests before that happens. But now that they have weight on the wheels, they can move on to “testing the integrated systems, running the engine, and testing the taxis” before its maiden flight, tentatively scheduled “later this year.” A subsonic flight was planned, then more tests, and then the first supersonic flight.
There are companies other than NASA and Lockheed interested in this kind of flight, of course: Boom Supersonic is working hard to get its quiet experimental supersonic plane off the ground. Don’t expect to hear any sonic thumps anytime soon. This technology is promising for many reasons, but it’s still years away from general use.