Posted on 01/12/2024 9:09:48 PM PST by Berlin_Freeper
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft sits on the apron outside Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility at dawn in Palmdale, California. The X-59 is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission, which seeks to address one of the primary challenges to supersonic flight over land by making sonic booms quieter. Lockheed Martin Skunk Works
Looks like it could poke somebody’s eye out.
I’m guessing it’ll take 20 years to scale this up for commercial passenger applications.
That’s a beauty but no comparison to the XB-70, “Valkyrie!”
I saw the aircraft while I was taxiing an Ohio ANG T-33 on Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio.1959..
I almost taxied off the ramp because I could not take my eyes off of the big bird.
It was flown into Wright Patt. to be put into the US Air Force Museum.
The other prototype was lost in a, tragic, midair collision.
I got to see it later at a 42nd Bomb Wing Reunion. It is on display at Wright Patt. with the “Experimentals,” and the “Presidential” Airplanes. 2013.
If seeing the bird doesn’t take your breath away, you are not involved, at all, in aviation!
Holding my breath as I ponder how much of the work was done by the DEI team members. Lockheed Martin does so much work for the government you know that they are fully infiltrated.
1959? Perchance you mean 1969? That's when the surviving Valkarie got sent to Wright-Patterson.
Innovators are leaving California in droves!!!
Other than novelty and wealthy jetsetters, what would be the civilian market application for this?
Scaled up? It would be useable on transcontinental and transoceanic routes. The SST did the over the ocean flights only because of the sonic boom noise/shockwaves.
There are clearly military applications. Being able to get to anywhere on the globe in a couple of hours is something that would important for any Air Force.
That damn thing looks like a giant lawn dart.
It’s just a one off experimental a/c......................
... and when it comes to supersonic a/c, "quiet" is a relative term. It still couldn't sneak up on a Molly Hatchet concert.
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