NASA’s quiet and speedy experimental plane design is getting closer to takeoff.
The X-59 aircraft recently underwent the installation of its tail assembly. If the plane can reach its intended goal of sustained supersonic flight with less noise, it’s going to be a step toward slashing air travel times for industrial passengers.
“This installation allows the team to proceed final wiring and system checkouts on the aircraft because it prepares for integrated ground testing, which can include engine runs and taxi tests,” a NASA news release stated.
The Need for Speed
The X-59 is all about speed. It’s going to find a way to hit Mach 1.4, or 925 miles per hour, flying at 55,000 feet. A single pilot will fly the 99.7-foot-long, 29.5-foot-wide aircraft powered by a single jet engine.
Current airliners fly well below the speed of sound. A supersonic plane could reduce a five-hour flight from Latest York to Los Angeles by as much as 40 percent. The one industrial airliner designed for supersonic travel was the Concorde, which was retired in 2003. The Concorde cut the typical eight-hour flight from Latest York to Paris in half, but its illustrious history was marred by a catastrophic accident in 2000.
The X-59 is powered by an F414-GE-100 engine, installed last 12 months at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California. The F414 began life as GE’s widely used F404 turbofan, and was improved to be used within the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.
“The engine installation is the culmination of years of design and planning by the NASA, Lockheed Martin, and General Electric Aviation teams,” Ray Castner, NASA’s propulsion performance lead for the X-59, said in a press release. “I’m each impressed with and happy with this combined team that’s spent the past few months developing the important thing procedures, which allowed for a smooth installation.”
Quiet Time
Supersonic flight sounds great in theory, but in practice, it could result in annoying hypersonic booms—the noise related to shock waves created when an object travels through the air faster than the speed of sound. The booms could be as loud as an explosion or a thunderclap.
Current FAA rules ban supersonic flight over land resulting from noise pollution. NASA will use the experimental X-59 to assemble data within the hopes of reducing the sonic boom to a barely-audible sonic thump heard on the bottom. The supersonic plane will fly over populated regions of the US, and data will probably be gathered from residents in regards to the sound the aircraft produces.
If the X-59 succeeds in its mission, industrial air travel could get rather a lot quicker. Dinner in Paris, anyone?