Free Republic

NASA and Lockheed Martin formally debuted the agency’s X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft Friday. Using this one-of-a-kind experimental airplane, NASA aims to gather data that could revolutionize air travel, paving the way for a new generation of commercial aircraft that can travel faster than the speed of sound. “This is a major accomplishment made possible only through the hard work and ingenuity from NASA and the entire X-59 team,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. “In just a few short years we’ve gone from an ambitious concept to reality. NASA’s X-59 will help change the way we travel, bringing us closer...

At what velocity does a .22 bullet traveling through the air start producing a miniature sonic boom? In a recent discussion online, people who have studied the effect noted aircraft start to encounter related turbulence effects long before they reach the speed of sound. In addition, the speed of sound in air varies with the temperature of the air. Thirdly, any lot of ammunition produces a range of velocities. It is exceptional ammunition in which the range from the average to the maximum is less than 25 feet per second (fps).It is not uncommon for .22 LR ammunition to have...

The world hasn’t seen commercial supersonic travel in nearly 20 years since the Concorde was retired in 2003, but all that is about to change with the development of a new, environmentally friendly airliner. Meet Overture – the world’s fastest airliner that was developed by Denver-based Boom Supersonic. With 26 million hours of designing and testing, Overture will run on 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) as it flies at Mach 1.7 over the ocean, shuttling between 68-80 passengers up to nearly 5,000 miles. The updated design features four engines that will keep weight and temperature balanced, which will also lower...

A quiet supersonic plane designed and built by NASA to usher in a new era of superfast air travel made a pitstop in Texas to perform crucial structural testing ahead of a debut flight later this year. NASA's X-59 made the switch between Lockheed Martin facilities in late December, moving the plane between Palmdale, California and Fort Worth, Texas to take advantage of specialized equipment available in the Lone Star State to make sure the speedy vehicle won't face too much stress in mid-air. "In Fort Worth, they've got the perfect facility with a full control room and all the...

A heavy chorus of bolting and machinery filled the X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology, or QueSST, assembly building as engineers, system technicians, and aircraft fabricators worked to merge the major aircraft sections together, making it look like an actual aircraft for the first time since the initial cut of metal in 2018. "We’ve now transitioned from being a bunch of separate parts sitting around on different parts of the production floor to an airplane,” said Jay Brandon, NASA chief engineer for the Low Boom Flight Demonstrator (LBFD) project. NASA’s X-59 QueSST is under construction at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale,...

The carrier announced Thursday it’s buying 15 planes from Boom Supersonic with the option to purchase 35 more at some point. Boom’s first commercial supersonic jet, the Overture, has not been built or certified yet. It is targeting the start of passenger service in 2029 with a plane that could fly at Mach 1.7 and cut some flight times in half. That means a flight from New York to London that typically lasts seven hours would only take 3½ hours. Earlier this year, United took a stake in eVTOL start-up Archer Aviation while partnering with Mesa Airlines to order 200...

The Quiet SuperSonic Technology aircraft is America's newest experimental plane. A time-lapse video released by NASA in early 2020 shows the progress of the X-59, which has been referred to as the X-59 Supersonic Frankenstein. It’s assembly is using scavenged parts from iconic aircraft such as the F-16 Fighting Falcon, the NASA T-38 Talon, and the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk.

Virgin Galactic announced in May that it would be partnering with NASA to work toward high-speed, high altitude point-to-point travel for commercial airline passengers. The plan is to eventually create an aircraft that can fly above 60,000 feet (the cruising altitude of the Concorde) and carry between 9 and 19 people per flight, with a cabin essentially set up to provide each of those passengers with either Business or First Class-style seating and service. One other key element of the design is that it can be powered by next-gen sustainable fuel for more ecological operation. In some ways, this project...

Russia's first regiment of Avangard hypersonic missiles has been put into service, the defence ministry says. The location was not given, although officials had earlier indicated they would be deployed in the Urals. President Vladimir Putin has said the nuclear-capable missiles can travel more than 20 times the speed of sound and put Russia ahead of other nations. They have a "glide system" that affords great manoeuvrability and could make them impossible to defend against. Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu confirmed the "Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle entered service at 10:00 Moscow time on 27 December", calling it a "landmark event".

March 5, 2019 NASA Captures First Air-to-Air Images of Supersonic Shockwave Interaction in Flight One of the greatest challenges of the flight series was timing. In order to acquire this image, originally monochromatic and shown here as a colorized composite image, NASA flew a B-200, outfitted with an updated imaging system, at around 30,000 feet while the pair of T-38s were required to not only remain in formation, but to fly at supersonic speeds at the precise moment they were directly beneath the B-200. The images were captured as a result of all three aircraft being in the exact...

Lockheed will build the airplane at its Palmdale, California Skunk Works facility, which is well known for building risky and high-technology airplanes. Lockheed was previously awarded a design contract, and were the only bidders for the $247.5m construction award. The company expects to reach Critical Design Review—after which the design is fixed and construction begins—in September 2019, with first flights anticipated in 2021. The first year or two will be devoted to baseline testing: Proving the new airplane can fly, carefully measuring its subsonic noise, and comparing it to a NASA F/A-18’s noise levels. Starting in 2022, the demonstrator will...

Known as the Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator (LBFD), this X-plane is scheduled to make its first test flight as early as 2021 and "would open a new market for U.S. companies to build faster commercial airliners, creating jobs and cutting cross-country flight times in half," the White House budget request states.  The goal of supersonic aircraft like LBFD is to make commercial airplanes that can fly faster than the speed of sound without generating a loud and obnoxious sonic boom, an ear-splitting noise associated with shock waves generated by an aircraft as it breaks the sound barrier "Future supersonic aircraft seeking...

The Bloodhound Supersonic Car just completed its first public test, reaching 210 mph in eight seconds on a 1.7-mile airport runway in England. It’s powered by an engine usually found on combat aircraft, which gave it a 54,000-thrust horsepower. That’s equal to the combined output of at least 360 family cars. Eventually, a rocket engine will be attached to the car, with the goal of smashing the current land speed record of 763 mph to hit the 1,000 mph milestone.

Today at Cornwall Airport Newquay in southern England, the Bloodhound SSC completed its first test run with Royal Air Force Wing Commander and Guinness land speed record holder Andy Green at the wheel. According to the Bloodhound team, the car accelerated from 0-200 mph in around eight seconds, generating 2g of force, and making a hell of a lot of a noise.

She was the last of the iconic supersonic passenger jets to be built and the last to fly. But now, 14 years after her final flight, the public can board Concorde Alpha Foxtrot once again today as she goes on display at a £19million new home in Bristol. The Anglo-French supersonic plane, which could cross the Atlantic in three hours, can be seen at aviation heritage museum Aerospace Bristol, which opens today. The museum promises that visitors will be 'wowed by a dramatic projection show on to the supersonic jet that tells the story of Concorde and what it was...

QueSST is the preliminary design stage of NASA's Low Boom Flight Demonstration (LBFD) experimental airplane, also known as an X-plane. So far, a scale model of QueSST has been tested in an 8-by-6-foot supersonic wind tunnel at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. The next phase will be to test the technologies in flight, Coen said in the video. "So to do that, we're building an X-plane design and the eventual Low Boom Flight Demonstration aircraft that represents the boom of a larger airplane," Coen added. "The idea is to prove the technology; show how robust it is in a...

It's been more than ten years since Concorde made its final transatlantic flight. But there's a new generation of supersonic passenger aircraft beginning to emerge, boasting speeds at least twice as fast as current commercial planes. While these planes will first appear in the private and business jet market, catering only to the super rich with gargantuan price tags and first class service, supersonic may eventually reach regular holidaymakers.

The "air bubble" theory that would allow a submarine to move through the ocean at supersonic speed could be closer to reality through the work of Chinese scientists. Called "supercavitating," the theory is being developed into new technology by scientists at the Harbin Institute of Technology's Complex Flow and Heat Transfer Lab, according to the South China Morning Post, and it could allow a submarine to reach supersonic speed underwater. The "air bubble" technology would allow a submarine to travel from Shanghai to San Francisco in less than two hours, if the technology can actually be pulled off, according to...

Quiz Time! Today’s Problem: Chasing Daylight AUGUST 28, 2008, 12:38 PM My 11-year-old son came up with a good question the other day: Assuming a plane never had to stop to refuel, could it fly around the equator so fast that it never saw the sun set? To find out, I checked with one of my favorite online columnists: Patrick Smith, who writes “Ask the Pilot” for Salon.com. Before I reveal his reply, want to take a minute to answer the question in your head, so you can see how you did? I’ll wait right here. OK, here we go:

Could Lockheed Martin Skunk Works’ SR-72 hypersonic concept design fill the Pentagon’s need for a penetrating intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft? The answer could be yes.