The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is quietly building its supersonic aircraft. NASA’s supersonic aircraft, the X-59, is being designed to test technologies that could make commercial supersonic travel possible by reducing the sound produced by air compression when an aircraft breaks through the sound barrier.NASA develops sonic boom-free aircraft
Although NASA’s biggest and most important goal these days is the Artemis program, where they will send astronauts to the Moon again, the agency is trying to make progress in other projects as well. In this context, NASA and Lockheed Martin are quietly building the X-59 aircraft in the background. The main goal of the designed aircraft is to ensure that it does not make a sonic boom. For this reason, the front nose of the plane is quite long and thin. For this reason, there is no cockpit glass in the front of the aircraft. Although there are side windows, the pilot’s view will be provided by built-in camera systems.
The system powering the X-59 will be General Electric’s F414-GE-100 engine. This engine is already used in various warplanes such as the Saab Gripen and the F/A-18S Super Hornet. The X-59 itself is designed to reach a cruising speed of Mach 1.42, or about 1,500 kilometers per hour, and a top speed of Mach 1.5 (about 1,600 km/h). Lockheed took an important step in the assembly process by attaching the engine to the plane in November last year, and some tests were carried out. NASA aims to conduct the first flight test of the X-59 this year, but taxi tests will reportedly be carried out until the first flight.
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