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 and Lockheed Martin are developing a Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST) X-plane designed to eliminate the disruptive sonic boom, enabling future supersonic flight over land.
- Current wind-tunnel tests of a 9% scale model aim to confirm that a specifically shaped aircraft can generate shockwaves unnoticeable to people on the ground.
- Successful testing and securing future funding could lead to the final design, construction, and testing of a larger low-boom aircraft demonstrator.
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