By Mariella Moon, Engadget
Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works team has started building the first
part of the X-59 Quiet Supersonic Technology aircraft, which could make
supersonic commercial travel a reality. The aerospace company is
building the jet for NASA's Low-Boom Flight Demonstration program, now that the space agency has committed
to a three-year development timeline. Lockheed X-59's long, slender
design will allow it to be relatively quiet, creating a sound only as
loud as a car door closing whenever it transitions to supersonic speeds.
Since it will fly at an altitude of 55,000 feet and at speeds of 940
mph, it's expected to be barely audible.
A quiet supersonic plane could eventually convince authorities to
give them permission to fly on land, paving the way for air travel
that's much, much faster than we're used to. In order to ensure that the
project will achieve a noise level that most people will find
agreeable, NASA plans to conduct tests
using an F/A-18 Hornet aircraft over Texas this month. The aircraft
will produce louder sonic booms at sea and quieter ones over land, after
which 500 local volunteers will provide feedback.
Lockheed's Low
Boom Flight Demonstrator program manager, Peter Iosifidis, called the
start of the manufacturing process "a great leap forward for the X-59
and the future of quiet supersonic commercial travel." If all goes
according to plan, the X-59's first flight will take place in 2021 and
will be used to collect feedback on how acceptable its quieter sonic
booms are. According to Lockheed Martin, the results of that test will
help NASA "establish an acceptable commercial supersonic noise standard
to overturn current regulations banning supersonic travel over land."
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