This Friday, January 12, NASA presented its brand new silent supersonic aircraft X-59 Questst at the facilities in Palmdale, California, of the aeronautical giant Lockheed Martin, main contractor for the project.
Questt is NASA's mission to demonstrate the capability of supersonic flight by exceeding the speed of sound while reducing the traditional sonic boom to a silent sonic boom. Its distinctive tapered, delta-wing design furthers this goal.
NASA plans to carry out flights of the X-59 starting in 2024 over populated areas to collect data on how people perceive the sound it produces. This data will be provided to US and international regulators in hopes of tightening rules that currently prohibit commercial supersonic flights over land. These advances could enable new commercial cargo and passenger markets in air travel above the speed of sound, according to NASA.
The X-59 Questst is a one-of-a-kind experimental aircraft. It incorporates new technology along with systems and components from various military jet aircraft, such as its landing gear from an F-16 and its life support system adapted from an F-15. The engine is that of the F18 Super Hornet, with 22,000 pounds of thrust.
It will fly at more than 18,000 meters at a speed of around 1,500 kilometers per hour, but will produce in its wake a sound as loud as the closing of a car door - 75 decibels - instead of the sonic boom typical of airplanes that fly above the speed of sound. It measures 29 meters long and has a wing area of 9 meters. It has capacity for only one pilot.
