NASA’s quiet supersonic plane flies

The X-59 will generate less “sonic punch” thanks to its unique design. It was given a long, slender nose that represented about a third of the total length and refracted pressure waves that would otherwise be embedded in other parts of the aircraft. The engine was mounted above the X-59’s fuselage, rather than below it as in fighter aircraft, to maintain a smooth underside that limited shock waves and also to direct sound waves into the sky rather than down toward the ground. NASA aims to provide basic data to aircraft manufacturers so they can build faster, less noisy planes.

An aircraft like no other

The X-59 is a single-seat, single-engine jet aircraft. It is 99.7 feet long and 29.5 feet wide, making it nearly twice the length of an F-16 fighter jet but with a slightly smaller wingspan. The X-59’s cockpit and ejection seat come from a T-38 jet trainer, its landing gear from an F-16, and its joystick from the F-117 stealth attack plane. Its engine, a General Electric F414 modified from the F/A-18 fighter jet, will allow the plane to cruise at Mach 1.4, about 925 miles per hour, at an altitude of 55,000 feet. That’s nearly twice the speed at which commercial airplanes typically fly.

Perhaps the most striking change to the X-59 is that it does not have a glass cockpit window. Instead, the cockpit is fully enclosed to be as aerodynamic as possible, and the pilot watches a live camera feed of the outside world on a 4K display known as the External View System.

“You can’t see very clearly through the glass when you’re looking at it from a very shallow angle, so you need a certain degree of slope of the display to get good visual quality, and that would develop a powerful shock wave that would spoil the low-boom characteristics of the aircraft,” says Michael Bonanno, air composites lead for the X-59 at Lockheed Martin.

The X-59 reused components of other NASA aircraft.

Courtesy: Lockheed Martin

On this maiden flight, the X-59 flew at a lower altitude and at a speed of about 240 mph, according to NASA. During future tests, the plane will gradually increase its speed and altitude until it reaches supersonic speed, which occurs at about 659 mph at an altitude of 55,000 feet, or 761 mph at sea level, NASA said. The speed of sound varies with temperature and with less pressure, causing it to decrease at higher altitudes.

“The main goal on the first flight is just to land,” James Lees, an X-59 project pilot who will fly future flights, told WIRED. An F-15 fighter jet took off in formation with an X-59 as a support aircraft during the flight, monitoring the new experimental aircraft for any problems.