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NASA and Lockheed Martin have finally taken the wraps off of the X-59<\/a>, a \u201cquiet supersonic\u201d aircraft that may shape the future of both military and civilian air travel.<\/p>\n The X-59 has been under development at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works for years, following a $248 million grant from NASA<\/a> in 2018. That was just the first of many research programs NASA aimed to fund<\/a> in order to take bold steps forward in aviation, either in speed, efficiency or size.<\/p>\n Until now the aircraft has only been seen in various stages of disassembly in the hangar; today marks the first time it\u2019s been out on the tarmac in public view, and of course they made quite a to-do over at Lockheed\u2019s Palmdale facility.<\/p>\n \u201cIn just a few short years we\u2019ve gone from an ambitious concept to reality. NASA\u2019s X-59 will help change the way we travel, bringing us closer together in much less time,\u201d said Pam Melroy, NASA deputy administrator, in a press release. (A press call is scheduled for later today, and this article may soon be updated to reflect remarks made therein.)<\/p>\n The X-59 is an experimental aircraft, not a prototype of a production craft. The intent is to demonstrate that a plane can fly faster than the speed of sound \u2014 in this case, 925 MPH \u2014 without generating the window-rattling sonic boom that results from the resulting pressure wave.<\/p>\n Though it\u2019s impossible to entirely mitigate the effect of a large body moving through the atmosphere at great speed, the team aims to reduce the boom to a \u201csonic thump\u201d that\u2019s less disruptive to people, infrastructure and wildlife.<\/p>\n Schlieren image of a model X-59 producing a diffuse pressure wave at Mach speed. Image Credits:<\/strong> NASA<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBy demonstrating the possibility of quiet commercial supersonic travel over land, we seek to open new commercial markets for U.S. companies and benefit travelers around the world,\u201d said NASA\u2019s Bob Pearce.<\/p>\n It accomplishes this more or less by its incredibly aerodynamic shape: Nearly 100 feet long and only 29.5 feet wide, it has a dartlike profile that is carefully engineered to break up the shock waves coming off it in flight.<\/p>\n An interesting consequence of this shape is that having a forward-facing window in the cockpit is impractical \u2014 it, like the nosecone, would need to be highly attenuated. So the team instead mounted a 4K screen<\/a> they call the eXternal Visibility System, or XVS, which relays images from the front in real time.<\/p>\n The plane has not yet taken off, for there are many more tests before that can happen. But now that they\u2019ve got weight on wheels, they can move on to \u201cintegrated systems testing, engine runs, and taxi testing\u201d ahead of its first flight, tentatively scheduled for \u201clater this year.\u201d A subsonic flight is planned, then more tests, then the crucial first supersonic flight.<\/p>\n Others than NASA and Lockheed are interested in this kind of flight, of course: Boom Supersonic is hard at work getting its own quiet supersonic test plane out there. Just don\u2019t expect to hear any sonic thumps overhead any time soon \u2014 the technology is promising for many reasons, but still years away from general use.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n