NASA’s serene supersonic jet takes to the air

Due to its unique design, the X-59 will generate a lower “sound punch”. It was given a long, slender nose that is about one-third of the total length and breaks up pressure waves that would otherwise merge with other parts of the plane. The engine was mounted on top of the X-59’s fuselage, rather than underneath as on a fighter, to maintain a sleek bottom that reduces shock waves, and to direct sound waves up into the sky rather than down towards the ground. NASA’s goal is to provide key data to aircraft manufacturers so they can build less loud supersonic planes.

A jet like no other

The X-59 is a single-seat, single-engine jet. It is 30.7 meters long and 29.5 meters wide, making it almost twice as long as the F-16 fighter, but with a slightly smaller wingspan. X-59 cockpit and ejection seat come from the T-38 jet, his landing gear from an F-16 and its control stick from an F-117 stealth attack aircraft. Its engine, a modified General Electric F414 from the F/A-18 fighter, will enable the plane cruise at Mach 1.4, approximately 925 miles per hour, at 55,000 feet. That’s almost twice as much and twice as quick as commercial passenger planes typically fly.

Perhaps the most striking change to the X-59 is the lack of a glass cockpit window. Instead, the cockpit is completely enclosed to ensure as much aerodynamics as possible the pilot watches the image of the outside world from the camera on a 4K monitor known as the external visibility system.

“You can’t see clearly through the glass when you look at it from a very low angle, so to get good optical properties you need to have the screen at a certain angle, and that will create a strong shock wave that will really mess up the low boom characteristics of the airplane,” he says Michael Buonanmanager of X-59 air vehicles at Lockheed Martin.

According to NASA, during its first flight, the X-59 flew at a lower altitude and at a speed of about 300 km/h. NASA says that during future tests, the jet will gradually augment its speed and altitude until it reaches supersonic levels, which will occur at a speed of about 659 miles per hour at 55,000 feet, or 761 miles per hour at sea level. Speed ​​of sound varies with temperature and, to a lesser extent, pressurecausing it to decrease at higher altitudes.

“The main purpose of the first flight is actually the landing.” James Lessproject X-59 pilot who will perform future flights, tells WIRED. Less flew an F-15 fighter in formation with an X-59 as an in-flight support aircraft, watching the modern experimental jet for any problems.