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News: NASA X-59 QueSST Moves On To Next Testing Regime

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  1. Ground Tests Finished For NASA X-59 QueSST
    A few days ago NASA announced that the X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST) has now returned to Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works factory in Palmdale, California. It will now move on to the next phase of assembly and final integration. The experimental craft was in Fort Worth, Texas conducting intensive ground testing. The X-59 is experimental and being used as a Low Boom Flight Demonstration aircraft to help shape and finesse forthcoming regulations around future supersonic flight over land. When the Concorde flew they only could fly supersonic over the ocean as a result of the sonic boom that is created as the aircraft makes during transition from subsonic to supersonic. Photos by: NASA/Lauren Hughes.
  2. "The X-59 is designed to fly faster than the speed of sound without producing the typically loud sonic booms that occur when an aircraft flies at supersonic speeds," NASA said. "The advanced X-plane will instead reduce that sound to a quiet sonic 'thump', which will be demonstrated in flights over communities around the U.S. starting in 2024." Part of the 'magic' behind the slippery and near sonic-boomless transition is the refined and long nose. That nose is designed to shape shock waves during flight and reduces loud sonic booms as it flies at supersonic speeds of about 660 mph (574 knots) at sea level.

    For more information:

    Lockheed Martin Corporation
    6801 Rockledge Dr Bethesda, MD
    www.lockheedmartin.com

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