The X-59 quiet supersonic airplane.
NASA/Lockheed Martin
In a windowless hangar in the California high desert, the final touches are coming together on an aircraft that could reshape aviation. A needle-nosed airplane that looks more like a futuristic sketch from a 1950s sci-fi comic -- all sweeping lines and 카지노사이트 unbroken curves, a narrow cockpit concealed in the center. Designed and built by NASA and Lockheed Martin, this is the supersonic airplane of the future. And when it takes to the skies, NASA and Lockheed are hoping you won't even notice it flying by.
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I'm at the Armstrong Flight Research Center, just outside of Lancaster, California, to see the X-59 QueSST (short for Quiet SuperSonic Technology) -- a demonstrator aircraft designed to fly faster than the speed of sound without generating an explosive sonic boom.
A traditional supersonic aircraft can create a sonic boom in excess of 100 decibels when it flies, a sharp sound louder than a fireworks display. It was this disruptive sound that led the Federal Aviation Administration to ban commercial supersonic flight over land in 1973.
But the X-59 has been shaped to minimize the shock waves that cause a sonic boom midflight, reducing its sound at ground level to 75 decibels. According to NASA, that's about as loud as a car door slamming down the street.