NASA’s New Experimental Jet Promises Supersonic Flight Without the Sonic Booms

Supersonic flight could be making a comeback more than 20 years after the retirement of the Concorde, courtesy of an experimental NASA aircraft. 

During their heyday the Concorde could rocket from New York City to London in under three hours, less than half the time of traditional passenger planes. Unfortunately, they also announced themselves with sonic booms that topped out at over 110 decibels. The noise was so jarring Congress banned Concordes from flying over the United States in 1973, three decades before they were grounded for good.  

Read more: “When Passenger Planes Surpassed the Speed of Sound”

That’s in part because sonic booms aren’t a one-and-done phenomenon. As aircraft fly at supersonic speeds, they’re continuously creating pressure waves that pile up on one another and cascade to the ground, resulting in sonic booms carpeting the ground beneath their flight path.

But now that problem may be solved, thanks to NASA and Lockheed Martin’s skunk works, which developed a prototype supersonic jet that promises to be whisper quiet compared to the screaming Concorde. Called the X-59 Quesst (“Quiet SuperSonic Technology”), the experimental aircraft just completed its 25th test flight August 21st at Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The flight marked the last time the X-59 will fly with a chaperone—a supersonic chase plane whose own sonic boom drowns out any noise from the test craft. 

In the next phase, NASA engineers hope to fly it solo over populated areas to find out how people react to its muffled sonic “thud,” which could be only as loud as a car door shutting. “This is the phase we’ve been working toward,” Larry Cliatt, acoustic validation technical lead for NASA’s Quesst mission said in a statement. “Building and flying a brand-new aircraft is an extraordinary accomplishment, but the next phase is where the real research begins.” 

While the X-59 is only designed to carry one person, the lessons they learn during testing could pave the way for overland supersonic flight to return. 

What makes it so quiet? 

The secret is all in the design. Unlike the Concorde, the X-59 has a long, needle-like nose in front of a cockpit that’s flush with the fuselage. This sleek, svelte silhouette cuts down on the interference that causes shock waves to build up and prevents them from coalescing into a sonic boom. Unfortunately, this design also means the pilot can’t see what’s ahead of the aircraft; instead, a forward-facing 4K camera offers visual feedback. It’s a bit slower than the Concorde as well, with a top speed of Mach 1.4, compared to the Concorde’s blistering Mach 2.

Still, those are small sacrifices to make if it helps usher in a quiet new era of supersonic flight.

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Lead Image: NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center / NASA/Carla Thomas