CNET News reports that NASA’s X-59 plane is attempting to break the sound barrier without the usual accompaniment of a sonic boom. At the Armstrong Flight Research Center, just outside of Lancaster, California, the space agency “is working on the X-59 QueSST (short for Quiet SuperSonic Technology) airplane – a demonstrator aircraft designed to fly faster than the speed of sound generating nothing more than a ‘sonic thump.’” Traditional supersonic aircraft “can create a sonic boom in excess of 100 decibels during flight – a problem that led the US Federal Aviation Administration to ban commercial supersonic flight over land in 1973.” But the X-59 “has been shaped to minimize the shock waves that cause a sonic boom midflight, reducing its sound at ground level to 75 decibels.”
Full Story (CNET News)
Tag: break
Boeing Engineers Break World Record for Longest Paper Airplane Flight
CNN reported that three engineers from The Boeing Company broke the world record for the farthest flight by paper airplane with a new distance of 289 feet, 9 inches, beating out the previous record of 252 feet, 7 inches. The success came after months of effort, including nearly 500 hours of studying origami and aerodynamics, and of testing multiple prototypes. The engineers’ design focused on speed and on minimizing drag.
Full Story (CNN)
FAA to Allow Boom Supersonic to Break Sound Barrier
Flying Magazine reports, “For the first time in its history, the FAA has issued a special flight authorization to allow Boom Supersonic to break the sound barrier. The approval will allow the Colorado startup to fly its XB-1 demonstrator aircraft faster than Mach 1 up to 20 times over the next year in the Black Mountain Supersonic Corridor in Mojave, California.”
Full Story (Flying Magazine)