Lockheed Martin X-59. The World’s Quietest Supersonic Jet.
Supersonic jets are better than ordinary planes in almost every way except one: their sound. The boom such planes make when they break the sound barrier is one reason they stopped being used in commercial travel with the retirement of the Concorde 21 years ago.
The sonic boom is a phenomenon that has long been the Achilles’ heel of supersonic flight. When an aircraft travels faster than the speed of sound, the compressed air molecules against the body of the plane produce shockwaves that merge to form a sonic boom, a loud and disruptive noise heard on the ground. This noise has historically been a significant impediment to the commercial viability of supersonic flight over land.
But Lockheed Martin’s X-59 supersonic jet, which can reach mach 1.4 (1488km/h), tamps down the noise thanks to its slender silhouette and woodpecker-like nose cone – all designed alongside NASA. People on the ground will perceive the 30-meters-long jet’s sonic boom at around the same level as a car door closing.
The X-59’s first test flight is expected in 2024.
The X-59’s "quiet" supersonic boom isn’t made possible by expensive magical materials or exotic engines. It really is just the shape of the aircraft. The X-59 travels faster than the speed of sound, while making barely any sound at all.
Anything that causes discontinuity in the airplane’s shape - for instance a windshield or canopy - can add to the boom effect. This led Lockheed to get rid of the windshield altogether. Instead, the X-59 uses an external vision system, which is the only advanced technology in the plane. The pilot navigates using a camera, viewing the outside through a large display.
Lockheed’s vision for commercial supersonic air travel is a 60m (double the length of the X-59) twin-engine model for 44 passengers.
The next biggest challenge that anybody who would go and develop supersonic airliner is finding an engine that would fly at Mach 1.8 without an afterburner and be large enough for an airplane of this size.
Someday, people might be able to look up and see an alien shape in the sky, with the X-59’s design transcending experimental nature and ushering in a new era for high-speed travel across the globe.