NASA's "Son of Concorde" SST
NASA Is Gaining Altitude on its X-59 SST with Lockheed Martin
How Could It Impact Passenger Travel?
NASA and partner Lockheed Martin are on the threshold of creating a next-generation supersonic jet. The SST under development is nicknamed the "Son of Concorde". It's also dubbed the X-59 QueSST. It is on a development trajectory to cut air travel times in half. For instance, a flight from New York City to London would take just 3 hours. The impact of the X-59 could be huge, initially, for anyone doing long distance flying from coast to coast in the US and also from the US to Europe. And that is just the beginning. If this very promising aviation technology comes to full fruition, the impact on cutting flight times would be global.
New Concorde
The X-59 is designed to minimize sonic booms that forced the original Concorde to slow down over land, increase flight times and become increasingly uneconomical. The original Concorde SST commercially launched in 1976 and was decommissioned because of its unprofitability in 2003. The new X-59 is being built by Lockheed-Martin with a nearly $250 million NASA contract. It will have a cruising speed of Mach 1.4 or 925 mph. It's designed with a 300-foot nose cone that cuts the sonic boom when it hits Mach 1. That will allow the SST to hit supersonic speeds very soon after takeoff, even though it is flying over big cities.
What Are the Next Steps for Deployment?
A big prototype model is now starting to undergo testing. The X-59 has successfully endured wind tunnel testing and is expected to go through flight tests later in 2022. For the flight testing, the prototype demonstrator will be 94 feet long with a wingspan of 29.5 feet and able to hit a top speed of Mach 1.5 or 990 mph. It has space only for a pilot. If all goes well, NASA plans to develop it into a big commercial SST for passenger flights. NASA's goal is for a quiet, supersonic passenger jet that will bring the world closer for all of us. To take a look at many more flying concepts, go to https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B093J89VF5&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_DMWQYXWXMMZ0MHYMA9KJ
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