X-59 Takes on the Skies

NASA awarded a preliminary design contract to the Lockheed Martin for a quiet supersonic aircraft almost a decade back. Later on the space agency partnered with the defense and aerospace manufacturer to design, build and deliver the Low-Boom X-plane by 2021. X-59, the revolutionary supersonic jet has now completed its maiden flight in California on October 28th of this year.

On a recent news release, Lockheed Martin has confirmed about this test flight. The jet took off from the US Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California and landed at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The manufacturer claimed that the jet has performed "exactly as planned" while verifying initial flying qualities and air data performance on the way.

When any object travels through the air faster than the speed of sound, it naturally generates a sonic boom which releases a large amount of sound energy and it can be heard from the ground. This is widely known as supersonic speed. It is also one of the primary barrier to supersonic commercial flight as sonic boom is currently restricted over land due to noise concerns. The X-59 jet was built to demonstrate the ability to fly at supersonic speed while reducing the sonic boom noise as low as possible.

This jet can cruise at 55 thousand feet and can reach up to Mach 1.4 (925 mph) speed. While reaching the supersonic speed it generates 75 PLdB which is roughly as loud as car door closing. It is being expected that these innovation will pave the way for a new generation of supersonic aircraft that can efficiently transport both passengers and cargo twice as fast as aircraft of today.

Lockheed Martin will continue to work with NASA to expand the flight envelope of this jet over the coming months while NASA will operate X-59 to measure the sound signature of this jet and conduct community acceptance testing. Lockheed also released a video that demonstrates the first flight of the aircraft. Feel free to check it out as well.