In launch event on Friday, agency shared plans to test over US cities to see if it’s quiet enough by engaging ‘the people below’

In launch event on Friday, agency shared plans to test over US cities to see if it’s quiet enough by engaging ‘the people below’

Nasa has unveiled a one-of-a-kind quiet supersonic aircraft as part of the US space agency’s mission to make commercial supersonic flight possible.

In a joint ceremony with Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California, on Friday, Nasa revealed the X-59, an experimental aircraft that is expected to fly at 1.4 times the speed of sound – or 925mph (1,488 km/h).

The aircraft, which stands at 99.7ft (30.4 metres) long and 29.5ft wide, has a thin, tapered nose that comprises nearly a third of the aircraft’s full length – a feature designed to disperse shock waves that would typically surround supersonic aircraft and result in sonic booms.

  • Artyom@lemm.ee
    61·
    10 months ago

    This is literally how every expensive R&D project gets done. Private companies won’t dump this kind of money into good R&D, but the government will because they don’t care about ROI.

    • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      But in this particular case, what’s the public benefit beyond that potential ROI? The potential beneficiaries (airlines and business travelers) have the financial means to incentivize this research privately, if there’s really a demand for it.

    • You999@sh.itjust.works
      01·
      10 months ago

      Except this ignores the existence of bell labs, you know the private R&D lab with ten Nobel prizes and a laundry list of inventions that quite literally shaped our modern world.