NASA, Lockheed Martin Reveal X-59 Quiet Supersonic Aircraft

Hypx@kbin.social to Technology@lemmy.world – 333 points – NASA, Lockheed Martin Reveal X-59 Quiet Supersonic Aircraft - NASA
nasa.gov

NASA and Lockheed Martin formally debuted the agency’s X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft Friday. Using this one-of-a-kind experimental airplane, NASA aims to

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Looks like 1950s retro futurism version of a jet

In the future people will even be able to play chess with someone across the world, and even order a pizza to their door on the telephone.

and even order a pizza to their door on the telephone.

While living on the moon. (50s futurists aimed high.)

If we hadn't wasted all our time and resources on wars and luxury yachts we probably would be

I agree. But sadly, a lot of progress is driven buy conflict as well.

Unless a nation is under an existential threat there is little motivation to invest in progress.

If you can order a missile strike a country away, you should bee able to put a pizza in it. Progress

If they are taking about an "X-59" it's because the classified tests on the "X-109" went well.

What is the X-109?

It's classified.

I can't even find the existence of the name, which would be quite unusual.

It's G-15 classified.

Just mentioning that a G-15 classified project is classified as such, is a serious crime. I will report to the authorities before they.... Someone is already at my door!

That woosh definitely made a sonic boom

"NASA aims to gather data that could revolutionize air travel, paving the way for a new generation of commercial aircraft that can travel faster than the speed of sound."

I think that is definitely just a cover because they don't want to admit they're actually developing supersonic stealth planes for the military.

Well hiding the giant boom is probably a good stepping stone to that so yeah

I think that is definitely just a cover because they don't want to admit they're they've actually developing developed supersonic stealth planes for the military.

Ftfy

What they reveal openly is usually from years ago. A couple aerospace friends are always like "yea, we heard scuttlebut about that about 5 years ago, so that means it was already a thing 10 years ago*, haha.

From the eyewitness accounts of whistle blowers, traditional propulsion and modern propulsion are old tech compared to what they have today. Silent and extremely fast already exists.

Guys, check out the cockpit.

I know technology is wildly advanced and he probably has a 360 view now, but other than test pilots, who are you going to get to fly a plane that lacks a forward view?

One of the material issues with supersonic is friction heat buildup. Probably can't have a front windshield at that speed.

Cameras and instrumentation will do just fine tho

The heat is from compression, not friction. And besides that, this thing is only flying at mach 1.5, there are TONS of aircraft that fly at those speeds (and much faster) with windshields.

The reason it doesn't have a front windshield is because the change in shape of the aircraft at the windshield, to be more vertical, was disrupting their method of reducing the sonic boom. The aircraft needs the shape it has, so a windshield would have to be like 20 feet long to offer any forward visibility.

With that huge honker of a nose, it’s not like you’d see much anyway. Entire cities could hide behind that

but other than test pilots, who are you going to get to fly a plane that lacks a forward view?

This plane will only be flown by test pilots. Its a technology demonstrator. Researchers build one of these to test concepts in physics in the real world.

No instruments, just a microphone to talk to ChatGPT.

With that speed you aren't able to react to anything visible in the flightpath anyway 💨

You know planes fly at night yeah, when you can't see things

“Across both teams, talented, dedicated, and passionate scientists, engineers, and production artisans have collaborated to develop and produce this aircraft,” said John Clark, vice president and general manager at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works.

What the hell is a production artisan?

Someone with the skills and knowledge to "manually" produce some of the many one-off parts that went into this prototype.

The scientists and engineers may know what kind of part is needed, but it takes a different skillset to produce it.

So like the welders for the Russian rocket engines that were produced 50 years ago? Seems those welds are something we aren't sure how they did it.

Yeah something like that. Welding is absolutely something that requires skill and talent.

I have a electromechanical engineering degree myself, at some point during my education we had some labs where we did basic welding, milling, lathing and whatnot. The intention was not to become experts at it, but to get notions of what it entails. I quickly understood that theoretical understanding and hands-on experience are entirely different things, and require an entirely different skillset.

Individuals that sell billion dollar paintings to the Pentagon.

Lol, people with no sense of humor downvoting you.

Define quiet....

The Sonic Boom will sound more like your neighbours car door closing than an explosion

A sonic thump could still be very disturbing. Maybe not break windows, but induce panic I a lot of people.

Oh gosh a noise the volume of a distant car door closing! Panic!

Jesus fucking Christ, we need a word for cunts in the comments who'll find any fuckin reason to suggest a really specific reason to be against/offended about something on behalf of someone else 😂

Is there a word for that?

Can we make one?

May I suggest a blott?

And what is so bad about not wanting sonic booms of any sort happening over my head?

I was making a point about the 0.00000001% of people that could be distressed by that but you didn't understand my comment

Sorry, I missed the part were it was such a small number. I also doubt that number is true.

Maybe we just have different ideas of what quiet is...

Yeah, apparently we do...

The problem with Sonic booms isn't that you notice them, it's fine to notice the sound of a vehicle traveling overhead. The problem is that the sound from previous supersonic jets has shattered windows all along the flight path, ruptured eardrums and caused moderate hearing loss.That is a problem...

If this instead sounds like a car door closing, I'd call that significantly quieter.

I was at work in a bank (big, sturdy, multiple stories) when we experienced a sonic boom. It was heard/felt across several counties. We thought a bomb had gone off somewhere.

Reminds me of a pterosaur somehow.

Considering that splitting supersonic shockwaves in the air is kind of analogous to splitting the water when plunge-diving for fish (which at least some pterosaurids are hypothesized to have done), that makes sense.

Maybe their ability to go to the bathroom without making any noise was the inspiration?

It’s like a blind Pinocchio flying at the speed of sound controlled by a touch screen. 2024, ladies and gents.

What an ignorant statement...

It was a joke.

But no, I don't believe it's controlled with a touch screen. Though it is "daring" shall we say... to make a plane with no cockpit windows.

In commercial airliners, nearly the entire flight is now closely monitored and controlled by redundant computer systems. And the pilots rarely use the front window, they mostly fly by instrument.

Cameras as the cockpit windows aren't really that crazy at this point. Really glass cockpits are a formality.

Glass cockpit is a specific term for flight decks that have replaced analog gauges with digital gauges and screens.

Pilots use the windows all of the time. They use it to look for traffic and for vfr approaches.

It's really not, flying without looking out the window is very common especially for NASA and the USAF.

It's really not, flying without looking out the window is very common especially for NASA and the USAF.

Absolutely, in fact it's not just nasa or military, almost everyone does that. You need to prove that you can fly without looking out the window to get your "instrument rating" and be legally allowed to fly at night. Every instrument flight rated pilot can do it (a majority of pilots). However, airports are lit up with lights, so even at night or in fog, you can see the runway as you're landing. If you have no windows, you can't do that, you'll need someone to guide you down.

That's not my concern, the issue is a lack of redundancy. If the computers crash or if the vehicle loses power your suddenly have no windows. From a design perspective, it's a risky choice. Not insurmountable, but it's a potential problem point. It's a choice that adds an additional critical single point of failure.

lack of redundancy is a concern, but the same was said for fly by wire cutting the physical link between stick and controls. fly by wire is ubiquitous now, can be made very very safe, and is a net gain for aviation in general.

not having a window is obviously a bigger challenge, but its still a solvable problem.

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There is zero need to revive SSTs. We need to focus on slow transport using renewable energy.

NASA isn’t here to build trains, they exist to push the boundaries of aerospace which is what this is

Using SAF especially e fuels it could actually turn out to be a very environmentally sustainable mode of transport for long flights.

Plus if people flew to a sustainable resorts rather than take a cruse for example it'd be far better.