NASA, the American space agency, recently hit the runway with its long awaited rather revolutionary X-59 for its first Taxi test at California Plant 42.
Quite temptingly, with this taxi test, it is safe to say that we are very close to witnessing an unprecedented event in the history of aviation; viable supersonic civilian flight.
This taxi test is more than just another air-exploration quest. It’s quite potentially a paradigm shift in aircraft science. The supersonic travel dream that was buried with Concorde might be resurrecting with the new X-59. With its elongated nose and no front windscreen, forcing pilots to rely on an augmented reality camera system, the aircraft feels like an ensemble of designing innovation.
Such finesse of this aircraft is quite telling on how sensitively NASA and Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer of the aircraft, take the issue of solving the most fundamental problem that killed the supersonic aviation in the first place; its noise.
The aircraft promises to replace ear-splitting sonic booms with a gentle “thump” comparable to a car door closing. If successful, this breakthrough could overturn nearly 50 years of supersonic flight bans over populated areas, shrinking cross-continental flights to three hours and revolutionizing emergency response times.
The most compelling in this project would be NASA’s methodical approach. They said NO to the inevitable sonic booms and engineered around the physics through innovative shaping. This is what you call pulling a bunny out of the hat. Even more interesting is NASA’s collaboration with the Japanese JAXA, in a way this a new era of setting global standards for aviation brilliance.
Following successful low-speed tests with NASA, pilot Nils Larson at the controls says, the program advances to high-speed trials before the anticipated first flight in late 2025. The real test comes when NASA flies over populated areas to gauge public reaction to the reduced noise signature.
