What To Know About NASA-Lockheed Martin's New Supersonic Plane (X59)

What To Know About NASA-Lockheed Martin's New Supersonic Plane

NASA has cleared an experimental supersonic plane designed to reduce, or maybe even eliminate, sonic booms, for final assembly, opening the door for super-fast commercial travel over land.

The space agency said Monday a key management review resulted in the go-ahead for continued work by Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) on the X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology plane, or QueSST, with plans for a first test flight by 2021.

I'm surprised that they are further along with this than I knew. Article says that they've been working on the plane for a year and that final assembly should be done in 2020. And it's out of Lockheeds Skunk Works. Cool.

Hopefully in 2021 testing goes smoothly and we will be seeing this type of aircraft flying at Mach 1 in the future.

Looking forward to seeing pics of the X59.

I think anything not politics is awesome! Thanks for breaking it up man. My god, I thought it was bad before the impeachment happened....

On topic, That plane has one hell of a long nose.

S & F

a reply to: grey580

You haven't been following the thread started a couple years ago when they first announced it. They started construction last year almost concurrently with PDR.

a reply to: KKLOCO

Shaping is the key to reducing the signature as they go supersonic. The X-59 uses that shaping to, hopefully, almost completely reduce its signature.

a reply to: Zaphod58

The X-59 uses that shaping to, hopefully, almost completely reduce its signature.

Or stab Godzilla in the heart should he arise and is in villain mode again

a reply to: grey580

Cool. Thanks for bringing this to ATS. Like the other poster, I am also tired of the many political threads. This is a nice break from all that.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: KKLOCO

Shaping is the key to reducing the signature as they go supersonic. The X-59 uses that shaping to, hopefully, almost completely reduce its signature.

Shaping eh? Is this the very best design/shape for reaching these speeds? I think a ufo shape would be faster.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I've seen the wind tunnel test models. But not that they were working on it.

Do you plan on taking pics when it's flying?

NASA tested techniques to reduce the sonic boom using an F-18 surrogate over Galveston. They were flying at 50,000 feet and using a diving technique designed to reduce the signature to a thud sound.

robbreport.com...

I vote that they name it:

The Quiet Riot!

a reply to: Zaphod58

Lockheed had the wind tunnel test up as a news item last year on its website...

The model doesn’t do the actual thing justice!!

It would make one heck of a lawn dart!!

Hey Zaphod, this is on topic, so I have a question for you. I live in the Phoenix, AZ area. Every several mornings or so, I hear these huge booms. So loud they shake my whole house. They seem to be always in the morning. Are they flying supersonic jets in this area frequently?

a reply to: KKLOCO

There are 100+ F-35s, plus probably as many F-16s at Luke, in Goodyear. They are the largest pilot training base in the US. They use the Goldwater range down near 8, to the south, and have a large air to air range to the west.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Thank you! I thought it was probably a dumb question. But at least now I know. 🍻

Makes sense. Seems AZ has ideal weather conditions for training pilots.

originally posted by: KKLOCO
Hey Zaphod, this is on topic, so I have a question for you. I live in the Phoenix, AZ area. Every several mornings or so, I hear these huge booms. So loud they shake my whole house. They seem to be always in the morning. Are they flying supersonic jets in this area frequently?

Phoenix! My home town...

originally posted by: lostbook
a reply to: grey580

Cool. Thanks for bringing this to ATS. Like the other poster, I am also tired of the many political threads. This is a nice break from all that.

100% agree! I created an account to post this, but it was already here!

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: KKLOCO

There are 100+ F-35s, plus probably as many F-16s at Luke, in Goodyear. They are the largest pilot training base in the US. They use the Goldwater range down near 8, to the south, and have a large air to air range to the west.

If you watch to the WSW they do training missions with flares a lot on Goldwater. Fun to watch at night. They just finished one up laat week.

a reply to: PopSmoke

Every so often between Tonopah and Phoenix you'll catch the Vipers blasting across 10 low level.

originally posted by: lostbook

originally posted by: KKLOCO
Hey Zaphod, this is on topic, so I have a question for you. I live in the Phoenix, AZ area. Every several mornings or so, I hear these huge booms. So loud they shake my whole house. They seem to be always in the morning. Are they flying supersonic jets in this area frequently?

Phoenix! My home town...

Lots of noise right now, sounds like someone is having some fun overhead. I don't see anything on flight radar either

a reply to: rktspc

You won't. Most fighters either don't have their new transponder or won't start using them until the 1st.