But the sleek, needle-nosed airplane had completed only nine minutes in the air on Friday, March 20, before a cockpit warning light forced an early landing. That warning was separate from the warning light that occurred during the takeoff attempt just before 10 a.m. PT, said Kathy Bahm, project manager at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center.
The brief flight took off from Edwards Air Force Base in California at the 10:54 a.m. PT mark the second time the plane took off. While the team originally planned for about an hour, leaders emphasized that even shorter flights provide new data to move the project forward. You can watch the landing in the video below.
NASA’s head of aeronautics research, Bob Pierce, said the team made the right decision to reduce the flight on Friday. The agency hopes to find and fix problems in this phase of the X-Plane, a plane the US builds to test new flight technologies and ideas.
“Sometimes it’s easy to forget that building an experimental aircraft like this means building something that never existed before,” Pearce said. a news conference. “As far as X-planes go, that’s not unusual.”
Evidence from Mars shows ancient river probably bigger and faster than thought
Is part of X-59 A long-term effort to change how fast commercial airplanes fly above ground. Conventional supersonic aircraft produce loud noises when they break the sound barrier, which is why the US government bans regular supersonic passenger flights over populated areas. NASA and its contractors, Lockheed Martin, Built the
At the kind of supersonic speed NASA wants to aim for for the X-59 – about 925 mph – a nonstop flight from New York to LA could take less than three hours. Today’s commercial airlines typically fly that route at speeds of about 550 mph, so passengers spend about 5 to 6 hours crossing the country.
mashable light speed
A sonic boom occurs when an aircraft flying faster than the speed of sound compresses pressure waves into a shock wave that hits the ground like a sudden explosion of air. NASA designed the
The residents below didn’t hear the X-59’s rumble during either of the first two test flights – and they weren’t supposed to. The plane never flew fast enough to be built. Both flights deliberately remained at subsonic speeds. NASA is using these early tests to shake out the system and see how the aircraft handles.
During Friday’s test, the plane was scheduled to fly for about an hour, reaching a speed of 260 mph at 20,000 feet before reaching a top speed of 230 mph at 12,000 feet. Officials said the plane never exceeded 230 mph.
“I was definitely expecting more to talk about a nine-minute flight,” said Les, who flew the X-59 for the first time on this mission. “Although I had not intended to land so quickly for my first landing, the aircraft performed very well.”
NASA test pilot Jim ‘Clue’ Les sits inside the cockpit of the experimental X-59 quiet supersonic jet at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.
Credit: NASA/Jim Ross
He described the aircraft as operating just like its simulator. After running over hundreds of hours of testing in the simulator, Les and other test pilots practiced with an unconventional vision system that combines images from cameras into a high-definition display. But this was his first time flying without a conventional front window.
The long nose shape which helps soften sonic booms does not leave room for a standard cockpit windscreen. But in some cases, the system provides better visibility than the naked eye, he said. For example, if a pilot is facing the sun, image processing can reduce glare and improve contrast.
“It felt really comfortable,” he said. “Even if I wasn’t looking ahead, I could see the edges and match it up.”
More than 100 test flights are planned. NASA intends to gradually move toward higher, faster flights before testing those buried booms in towns.
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