Defense Daily reported that on January 12, NASA and Skunk Works “rolled out the X-59 ‘quiet’ supersonic demonstrator aircraft in Palmdale, Calif.” FlightGlobal reports that during the “roll-out ceremony at Lockheed’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, the sleek, single-engine jet was hailed by its developers as a potentially ‘revolutionary’ step forward that could unlock commercial supersonic flights over populated areas.” Pam Melroy, NASA’s deputy administrator, said, “As we unveil this technological marvel, it’s really important to understand the profound impact the X-59 holds for the aviation industry. … Today, supersonic flight brings a thunderous boom. It is restricted across populated areas for good reason. And the X-59 is going to break that barrier.”
Full Story (Defense Daily); More Info (FlightGlobal)
Tag: X-59
NASA’s X-59 Moves Past Delays Towards First Flight This Year
Aviation Week reports that despite problems “that delayed the X-59 Low-Boom Flight Demonstration program from its scheduled flight debut in 2021, no obvious obstacles stand in the way of the aircraft flying for the first time in the late spring or early summer.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
X-59 Promises to Open a New Era of Supersonic Travel
The Times (UK) reports the X-59, built by Skunk Works, “promises to open a new era of supersonic travel.” The X-59 “has been designed to fly faster than the speed of sound without generating the thunderous, window-rattling sonic boom that has, until now, accompanied all supersonic flight. Instead, it should produce what NASA describe as a ‘gentle sonic thump’ – about as loud as a car door being slammed several metres away. The aim is to persuade regulators, including in Britain, to amend rules that have banned faster-than-sound commercial flights over land since the 1970s because of the noise nuisance.” Later this year, according to The Times, the “X-59 will pass over densely populated areas of the US. Residents will be asked what they think about the thump and the findings will guide future legislation.”
Full Story (The Times {UK})
After the Concorde, a Long Road Back to Supersonic Travel
An Ars Technica report discusses the possibility of achieving supersonic flight without loud booms, noting that NASA is working on it. “The X-59 is being built to do a series of supersonic test flights over American cities to boom people living there.” Then NASA will collect feedback “from those on the ground and compile it into a data pack for the aviation authorities, the FAA and the International Civil Aviation Administration.” That data is then expected to be “part of a push to lift the ban on supersonic flight over land and replace it with an acceptable noise standard.”
Full Story (Ars Technica)
NASA Delays Test Flights of X-59 to 2024
Aviation Week in paywalled coverage reports NASA “has pushed back the first flight of the X-59 low-boom supersonic demonstrator to 2024 after a series of subsystem issues encountered during check-out tests at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, late this summer proved harder to solve than expected.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
NASA’s X-59 Supersonic Aircraft Will Fly This Year
Aviation International News reported NASA confirmed that the X-59 supersonic aircraft “will fly this year and be tested over about a nine-month period with initial trials proving performance and safety. Once concluded, Lockheed Martin will formally hand over the aircraft to NASA, a milestone anticipated in 2024.” NASA said that the “program will then enter ‘Phase 2’ under which NASA flies the aircraft within the supersonic test range over NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center and Edwards Air Force Base in California to prove that the supersonic technology works as designed and that the aircraft is safe for operations in the National Airspace System. The third phase of the program is set to kick off in 2025 and run through 2026, involving flight trials over several U.S. cities. This is when the data collection will occur.”
Full Story (Aviation International News)
NASA’s X-59 Plane to Break the Sound Barrier with No Sonic Boom
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)
NASA, Lockheed Expect X-59 Quesst Aircraft to Make First Flight This Year
FlightGlobal reported that NASA “now expects its delayed X-59 Quiet Supersonic Technology (Quesst) demonstrator aircraft will make first flight in 2023 following completion of still-outstanding system evaluations.” The government agency, with partner Lockheed Martin, “confirm the 2023 first-flight target.” However, one industry advocacy group is calling on NASA to review the X-59 program “on ground that its conflicts with the US government’s goal of reducing aviation’s carbon footprint.”
Full Story (FlightGlobal)
NASA’s New Supersonic Jet Will Have One Thing Missing: A Sonic Boom
Robb Report reports that NASA’s experimental X-59 jet, powered by GE Aerospace, will work to minimize the loud noise that usually accompanies an aircraft breaking the sound barrier – aiming for a sound that is more akin to the thud of a closing car door than the usual explosive sound.
Full Story (Robb Report)
Lockheed Martin Completes Final Assembly of X-59
Aviation Week reports that Lockheed Martin “has completed final assembly of the X-59 Low Boom Supersonic Demonstrator in Palmdale, California, and is preparing to ship the experimental aircraft to Fort Worth for structural testing.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
NASA Initiates Engines Tests on Experimental X-59
Flying Magazine reports, “NASA has fired up the engine of its experimental X-59 supersonic aircraft for the first time, marking the launch of testing to ensure the powerplant and systems work together.” The “X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST) aircraft is part of NASA’s Low Boom Flight Demonstration project aimed at collecting data to help shape regulations for possible future commercial supersonic flight. … The modified F414-GE-100 engine is expected to enable the aircraft to fly Mach 1.4, or around 925 mph, according to NASA.”
Full Story (Flying Magazine
X-59 Demonstrator to Begin Structural Tests
Aviation Week reports that Lockheed Martin “is poised to start structural tests of the X-59 Low Boom Supersonic Demonstrator at its Fort Worth facility as part of final preparations for flight tests later this year in Palmdale, California.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
Supersonic Passenger Flights May Return
CNET News reports that a few companies are considering bringing back supersonic passenger flights. In 2021, United Airlines “agreed to buy 15 aircraft from Boom Supersonic, a startup working to build supersonic commercial jets. United is aiming to get those planes in the air by 2029.” Virgin Galactic and Rolls-Royce announced a partnership in 2020 to develop the X-59 aircraft, a quieter supersonic jet.
Full Story (CNET News)
Lockheed Martin Releases Video on NASA X-59 Supersonic Jet
SPACE reports on a video released on YouTube by Lockheed Martin about “NASA’s new X-59 supersonic jet” in which engineers “talked about the work of the forthcoming quiet supersonic flyer.” The video “opens with an incredible timelapse showing the jet coming together within view of a large team of technicians, seeking to make supersonic flight more silent than ever before.” NASA hopes to test the jet “over several communities in the United States starting in 2024.”
Full Story (SPACE)
Video
Supersonic X-59 Continues to Progress in CA
X-59 Supersonic Aircraft Arrives at Palmdale for Assembly
SPACE reports that NASA’s new “X-59 supersonic jet arrived this month at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale for assembly, ahead of a flight test expected this year.” NASA said April 18, “With its return to California, the X-59 will undergo further ground tests as it approaches full completion of its development and continues to make progress on its way to first flight.”
Full Story (SPACE)
NASA’s X-59 Supersonic Jet Passes Key ‘Cruise Control’ Test Ahead of First Flight
SPACE reports, “NASA’s new X-59 supersonic jet is a step closer to flight after passing an important ground test in March. Known as “engine speed hold,” the test ensured that the X-59 can maintain a specific speed when it flies for the first time later this year. “Engine speed hold is essentially the aircraft’s version of cruise control,” Paul Dees, NASA’s X-59 deputy propulsion lead at Armstrong Flight Research Center in California, said in a statement. “The pilot engages speed hold at their current speed, then can adjust it incrementally up or down as needed.”
Full Story (SPACE)