Supersonic Experimental Aircraft

This artist’s concept of NASA’s QueSST jet reflects the airplane’s final configuration following 

years of research and design engineering. The jet was constructed by Lockheed Martin at the 

company’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California. Credit: Lockheed Martin.

The X-59, NASA’s quiet supersonic experimental aircraft, has arrived back at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, following several months of critical ground tests in Ft. Worth, Texas.

NASA’s X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology aircraft, or QueSST, is designed to fly faster than the speed of sound without producing a loud, disruptive sonic boom, which is typically heard on the ground below aircraft flying at such speeds. 

Instead, with the X-59, people on the ground will hear nothing more than a quiet sonic thump – if they hear anything at all. The X-59 will fly over communities around the United States to demonstrate this technology, but first, NASA needed to validate the X-plane’s acoustic signature, using a ground recording system.

Ground tests on the X-59 were done to ensure the aircraft’s ability to withstand the loads and stresses of supersonic flight – or flight at speeds faster than Mach 1. The vehicle’s fuel systems were also calibrated and tested at Lockheed Martin’s Ft. Worth facilities. 

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.  READ MORE...

Doesn't Go Boom

Concorde flew from London to New York in three and a half hours. It soared at nearly twice the speed of sound, leaving an almighty sonic boom in its wake. The noise restricted where it could fly, but now NASA hopes it can resurrect faster-than-sound travel, with quiet supersonic flight.

Enter X-59 QueSST (Quiet SuperSonic Technology), developed by NASA and Lockheed Martin. With its uniquely designed shape, the aircraft should allow NASA to break the sound barrier again – but this time, with no more noise than your neighbour slamming a car door.

At Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works factory in Palmdale, California, an engineer works on the fuselage section of the X-59. The black rectangular panels are air intakes for the plane’s environmental control system (ECS), and the silver grate is the ECS exhaust. These features are placed on the top of the craft to reshape the shock wave pattern © Lockheed Martin

The general shape of the X-59, including the wings, can be seen here as the craft is assembled © Lockheed Martin

This image is looking inside the X-59’s engine inlet. Usually, the engine is placed on the bottom of an aircraft, but on the X-59, this section of the inlet and engine are mounted to the top of the plane. This is so the shock waves from the inlet and engine are shielded by the wing to reduce the sonic boom to a sonic thump © Lockheed Martin

The F414-GE-100 engine sits in the assembly area at GE Aviation’s Riverworks facility in Lynn, Massachusetts as it prepares for checkout tests. The engine will power the X-59 in flight © GE Aviation

Illustration of how the completed X-59 might look © Lockheed Martin

Rather than a forward-facing windscreen, the pilot sees the view via an HD video display © Lockheed Martin

TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THIS AIRCRAFT, CLICK HERE...