More than two decades since the Concorde supersonic plane last took off, NASA has been flying an experimental plane designed to replace loud sonic booms with a quieter knock, equivalent to a car door slamming 20 feet away. A successful NASA flight test program could influence the design of future supersonic aircraft capable of flying over land routes without vibrating buildings or people’s nerves.
The Lockheed Martin X-59 Questst, short for Quiet SuperSonic Technology, first took off late last year and recently began supersonic test flights. But unlike many experimental “X-plane” aircraft that may never leave the restricted airspace near Edwards Air Force Base in California, NASA plans to eventually take the X-59 on a tour of the United States so that residents of various cities and towns can provide feedback on the quieter sonic “thumps” it produces.
“Usually an “We need to demonstrate that, but then we need an aircraft that is robust enough to be able to fly all over the place and collect that data.”
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