Most U.S. pilots know there’s an FAR restricting a civil aircraft from exceeding the speed of sound over land thanks to the annoying boom that people on the ground experience when one flies nearby. Over the next few months, NASA believes successful wind-tunnel testing of a 9 percent scale model of Lockheed Martin’s X-plane, at speeds up to Mach 1.6, could pave the way for quiet supersonic flight in the not too distance future, making that regulation obsolete.
NASA and Lockheed Martin Believe a Boomless Supersonic Aircraft Is Feasible
Key Takeaways:
- NASA is conducting wind-tunnel tests of a 9 percent scale model of Lockheed Martin's X-plane, the Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST) demonstrator.
- The goal of these tests is to confirm that a specific aircraft shape can generate a shockwave unnoticeable to people on the ground, effectively eliminating the sonic boom.
- Successful development of this low-boom technology could pave the way for quiet supersonic flight over land, making current regulations restricting such flights obsolete.
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