The X-59 is preparing to fly faster than the speed of sound for the first time.
Over the past ten years, Lockheed Martin has developed an aircraft on behalf of NASA that one day could reach supersonic speeds, meaning traveling faster than the speed of sound, without producing the loud sonic booms typically associated with this feat.
On October 28th, the jet, called the X-59, made its very first flight and conducted many others in the following months. Now, NASA states that it is ready for supersonic flight. After months of flights, the X-59 team reviewed the progress made at the end of May and now looks ahead to the next series of flight tests, which will include higher altitudes and greater speeds. This will allow engineers to evaluate the X-59’s behavior under the operational conditions required for NASA’s Quesst mission (short for “Quiet Supersonic Technology”), which will collect data on quiet supersonic flight in the future.
The Concorde, the world’s first and only supersonic commercial airliner, was not permitted to travel faster than sound when flying over land. According to the space agency, the X-59 is expected to make its first supersonic flight in June, reaching a speed of over 1020 km/h at an altitude of about 13,000 meters.
“What lies ahead is the first supersonic flight of this one-of-a-kind aircraft,” said Cathy Bahm, NASA’s Low Boom Flight Demonstrator (Bof) project manager.
All the details.
WHAT NASA’S X-59 IS
The X-59 is a supersonic aircraft designed with a radically elongated geometry aimed at reducing the volume of sonic booms it can create when breaking the sound barrier.
As Gizmodo explains, “when aircraft fly at speeds greater than the speed of sound (Mach 1), they create a loud explosive noise known as a sonic boom. That sound is the result of shock waves generated by extreme speeds.” The X-59 is therefore designed to break the sound barrier without producing a sonic boom. In this way, the experimental aircraft could make quiet supersonic flight a viable option for commercial airplanes.
THE JUNE TEST
The team expects the X-59 to fly supersonic for the first time – over 1010 km/h – at an altitude of about 13,000 meters during a series of test flights in early June, a key milestone for the aircraft. Subsequently, it will perform a flight in “operational conditions,” during which it will reach Mach 1.4 (about 1,728 km/h) at 16,700 meters altitude.
“That speed and altitude are important because they represent NASA’s performance goals for the X-59, which will eventually fly over U.S. communities to demonstrate quiet supersonic flight and collect public feedback data on the aircraft’s quiet sonic ‘thump’,” NASA explained.
“Completing the first flight under real operational conditions is particularly significant: it is the moment when we begin to validate the aircraft in the environment for which it was designed,” Bahm said in a statement.
ESCORTED (FOR NOW) BY A TRADITIONAL SUPERSONIC JET
Although the X-59 is designed to fly at supersonic speeds without producing a loud sonic boom, these initial flights are not yet intended to demonstrate its quiet supersonic flight capabilities. The X-59 will be accompanied by a traditional supersonic escort aircraft, so any sonic “boom” produced during this testing phase will be masked by the louder sonic booms of the escort plane. In this summer’s supersonic flights, the support aircraft will also be equipped with a specialized probe for shock detection to conduct the first measurements of shock waves generated by the X-59.
THE GOAL OF THE U.S. SPACE AGENCY
NASA’s goal with the X-59 is to contribute to the development of “quiet” supersonic technologies that could lead to the design of aircraft capable of minimizing the impact of sonic booms on the ground, potentially allowing the removal of current supersonic flight restrictions. Supersonic flight has been banned over land within a certain distance of the United States since 1973 due to the devastating impact of loud sonic booms on people on the ground.
The U.S. space agency aims to demonstrate that the technologies developed for the X-59 can significantly reduce the impact of sonic booms, thereby encouraging a review of supersonic flight restrictions over U.S. territory and the possible return of commercial supersonic aviation.
