How does a new X-59 Quesst, designed and built by NASA and Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works, fly at twice the speed of sound without creating a loud sonic boom when it breaks the sound barrier?
Well, science.
It’s been a little over 20 years since the Concord, the last supersonic jet, flew at twice the speed of sound. Now NASA has unveiled a revolutionary experimental supersonic “quiet” jet called the X-59 Quesst (“Quiet SuperSonic Technology”) that “is designed to break the sound barrier without the thunderous sonic booms that typically occur when aircraft go supersonic.”
According to an article on The Aviation Geek Club website “The X-plane accomplishes this by a tailored design that separates the shock waves that produce sonic booms, making them quieter. The resulting supersonic “heartbeat” is dramatically quieter than the disruptive N-wave boom generated by today’s supersonic aircraft.
So it turns out there will be a sound when the X-59 Quesst does break the sound barrier, but it will be a much quieter and muffled sound instead of the loud booming sound from a sonic boom.
Among the X-59 Quesst’s many technical innovations is the lack of a forward window. If there’s now front facing windows then how does the pilot actually see where they’re going?
The X-59 Quesst “features what NASA calls the eXternal Vision System, or XVS, which consists of a camera and a cockpit-mounted screen that offers pilots an augmented-reality view of what’s in front of the jet.”
The forward-facing window was removed from the design of the aircraft to “help reduce the sonic boom the aircraft produces.”
Flight tests are scheduled to begin this year over populated areas to survey people on the ground to better understand how loud the aircraft really is.
NASA unveils its revolutionary X-59 Quesst ‘quiet’ supersonic jet