With the size of that beak, they should have named it "Pelican".
Posted on 01/15/2024 1:17:40 PM PST by Libloather
Aeronautic officials debuted a new quiet supersonic plane capable of flying faster than the speed of sound and getting from New York to London in three and a half hours.
The 100-foot long 30-foot wide X-59 supersonic aircraft, dubbed “son of Concorde,” was rolled out by NASA and Lockheed Martin on Friday, an innovation officials said they expected to revamp commercial air travel.
The Concorde aircraft, which could travel some 1,350 miles per hour, was retired some 20 years ago after launching in 1976, plagued by costly maintenance and a fatal 2000 crash.
Its new progeny can travel 925 miles per hour while generating a less disruptive sonic boom to communities below due to innovations in design, shaping and technologies, officials said.
Over the past half-century, the US and other nations have banned supersonic flights because of the startling booms created when planes exceed the speed of sound, which is 767 miles per hour, NASA noted in a press release.
The plane’s thin tapered nose was expected to break up shock waves that would cause a sonic boom on a conventional aircraft, and its cockpit is located about halfway down the length of the plane, meaning pilots would have to rely on camera monitors to operate it.
The X-59 is part of NASA’s Quesst mission, which is aimed at “providing data to help regulators reconsider” the ban.
“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 together in much less time.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Donald Fagan...Nightfly, IIRC.
Love SD. Saw them live in Birmingham, UK.
The NYP should know better than to say the speed of sound is a set speed, when it varies, due to altitude and barometric pressure.
I have a feeling ticket prices will be so high, no one could afford to fly with them.
The 1970’s are calling.....
The only flights are from Washington to Davos, and back.
Windmills I believe. The faster it goes the more power it generates. At least, according to Liberal logic.
hummingbird?
Not to put to fine a point it but why is NASA involved in a commercial airline enterprise in the first place? Do they have so much taxpayer funds lying around that this seemed like a good idea?
I wont fly on it anyway, the DEI engineers at NASA have turned everything they fly into a aluminum scrap yard.
I wonder if John F’n Kerry will fly on it.
Woohoo!!
I ain’t getting on anything built by DEI ignorant assholes.
It’s happy to see you.
Joke! Useless. No room for any passengers.
There probably is room but you may have to lay down the whole time. Should say so on the ticket.
That’s intentional to keep Texas from using them to speed up delivery of illegals to NYC.
They’re in the plane’s development stage right now. The government ticket subsidy stage comes with the two passenger version.
NASA debuts supersonic jet called ‘son of Concorde’ - capable of flying from NYC to London in 3 1/2 hours
Crewed by diversity hires.
“Aeronautic officials debuted a new quiet supersonic plane capable of flying faster than the speed of sound and getting from New York to London in three and a half hours.”………..
……..but how fast can it do the Kessel Run?
RLTW
“The X-59 is part of NASA’s Quesst mission, which is aimed at “providing data to help regulators reconsider” the ban.
NASA cautioned that the X-59 was a “unique experimental airplane,” not a prototype that would be replicated for commercial endeavors.
The cost of the project is $632 million over eight years, according to Bloomberg.”
why in the world is NASA spending over a half billion dollars on helping regulators reconsider” the supersonic ban on commercial air travel? Is space suddenly too hard for the nuevo DEI NASA, so they’ve literally lowered their sights?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.