NASA’s initial project piloted X-plane known as X-59 in more than 30 years is cleared for final assembly. For those decades, the agency has developed a list of airplanes and rockets to test out multiple technologies and design advances. Finally, NASA has cleared the newest one, the X-59. Nasa’s X-59 space plane, have more flying faster than the speed of sound without the loud noise is finally nearing completion.
There will be another major review by senior managers at NASA Headquarters of X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST) in late 2020 to approve the airplane’s first flight in 2021.
“With the completion of Key Decision Point-D(KDP-D) we’ve shown the project is on schedule, it’s well planned and on track. We have everything in place to continue this historic research mission for the nation’s air-traveling public,” said Bob Pearce, NASA’s associate administrator for Aeronautics, in a statement.
The X-59 is designed to reduce the loudness of a sonic boom touching the ground to that of a gentle thump if it is heard at all. Supersonic passenger flights have been banned over land since the early 1970s because of the noise. X-59 will fly at a height of 55,000 feet at a speed of about 940 mph and could travel from London to New York in just over three hours. The Project of X-59 is estimated at $247.5 million cost-plus-incentive-fee contracts, and it was partnering with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company to develop the Supersonic plane.
More than one-year Company have been working on X-59 at Lockheed’s Skunk Works in California, are now scheduled for late 2020.NASA has been testing experimental aircraft for more than 70 years, including the X-57 Maxwell the first all-electric experimental aircraft in flights.
