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Lockheed Martin X-59 Quesst
The Lockheed Martin X-59 Quesst ("Quiet SuperSonic Technology"), sometimes styled QueSST, is an American experimental supersonic aircraft under development by Skunk Works for NASA's Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator project. Preliminary design started in February 2016, with the X-59 originally planned to begin flight testing in 2021. After repeated delays, it began flight testing in late October 2025.
It is expected to cruise at Mach 1.42 (1,510 km/h; 937 mph) at an altitude of 55,000 ft (16,800 m). It will also create only a low 75 effective perceived noise level (EPNdB) thump to re-evaluate the viability of supersonic transport, since one of the main reasons previous supersonic transports were retired was due to their loud supersonic booms. For context, the X-59's 75 EPNdB thump would be around 16 times quieter than the 110 EPNdB boom that Concorde produced, since the Decibel is a logarithmic scale.
In February 2016, Lockheed Martin was awarded a preliminary design contract, aiming to fly in the 2020 timeframe. A 9%-scale model was to be wind tunnel tested from Mach 0.3 to Mach 1.6 between February and April 2017. The preliminary design review was planned to be completed by June 2017. While NASA received three inquiries for its August 2017 request for proposals, Lockheed was the sole bidder.
On April 2, 2018, NASA awarded Lockheed Martin a $247.5 million contract to design, build and deliver the Low-Boom X-plane by late 2021. On June 26, 2018, the US Air Force informed NASA it had assigned the demonstrator the designation X-59 QueSST. By October, NASA Langley had completed[clarification needed] three weeks of wind tunnel testing of an 8%-scale model, with high AOAs up to 50° and 88° at very low speed, up from 13° in previous tunnel tests. Testing was for static stability and control, dynamic forced oscillations, as well as laser flow visualization, expanding on previous experimental and computational predictions.
From November 5, 2018, NASA was scheduled to begin tests of the effects of supersonic thumps over the course of two weeks to gather feedback. Up to eight thumps a day would be produced at different locations, monitored by 20 noise sensors and described by 400 residents, who would receive a $25 per week compensation. To simulate the thump, an F/A-18 Hornet would dive from 50,000 ft (15,200 m) in order to briefly go supersonic, creating reduced shock waves over Galveston, Texas (an island city), as well as a stronger boom over water. By this stage, Lockheed Martin had begun machining the first parts in Palmdale, California.
In May 2019, the initial major structural parts were loaded in the tooling assembly. In June, assembly was getting underway. The external vision system (XVS) was flight tested on a King Air at NASA Langley. This is to be followed by high speed wind tunnel tests to verify inlet performance predictions with a 9.5%-scale model at NASA Glenn Research Center.
The critical design review was successfully held on September 9–13, before the IRB report to NASA's Integrated Aviation Systems Program by November. After this, 80–90% of the drawings were released to engineering. The wing assembly was to be completed in 2020. In December 2020, construction was halfway completed with the first flight then planned for 2022.
After flight-clearance testing at the Armstrong Flight Research Center, an acoustic validation including air-to-air Schlieren imaging backlit by the Sun to confirm the shockwave pattern testing was slated to be done through September 2022.[needs update] NASA planned to conduct flight tests over U.S. cities to verify the safety and performance of the X-59's quiet supersonic technologies and evaluate community responses for regulators, which could enable commercial supersonic travel over land.[needs update]
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Lockheed Martin X-59 Quesst AI simulator
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Lockheed Martin X-59 Quesst
The Lockheed Martin X-59 Quesst ("Quiet SuperSonic Technology"), sometimes styled QueSST, is an American experimental supersonic aircraft under development by Skunk Works for NASA's Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator project. Preliminary design started in February 2016, with the X-59 originally planned to begin flight testing in 2021. After repeated delays, it began flight testing in late October 2025.
It is expected to cruise at Mach 1.42 (1,510 km/h; 937 mph) at an altitude of 55,000 ft (16,800 m). It will also create only a low 75 effective perceived noise level (EPNdB) thump to re-evaluate the viability of supersonic transport, since one of the main reasons previous supersonic transports were retired was due to their loud supersonic booms. For context, the X-59's 75 EPNdB thump would be around 16 times quieter than the 110 EPNdB boom that Concorde produced, since the Decibel is a logarithmic scale.
In February 2016, Lockheed Martin was awarded a preliminary design contract, aiming to fly in the 2020 timeframe. A 9%-scale model was to be wind tunnel tested from Mach 0.3 to Mach 1.6 between February and April 2017. The preliminary design review was planned to be completed by June 2017. While NASA received three inquiries for its August 2017 request for proposals, Lockheed was the sole bidder.
On April 2, 2018, NASA awarded Lockheed Martin a $247.5 million contract to design, build and deliver the Low-Boom X-plane by late 2021. On June 26, 2018, the US Air Force informed NASA it had assigned the demonstrator the designation X-59 QueSST. By October, NASA Langley had completed[clarification needed] three weeks of wind tunnel testing of an 8%-scale model, with high AOAs up to 50° and 88° at very low speed, up from 13° in previous tunnel tests. Testing was for static stability and control, dynamic forced oscillations, as well as laser flow visualization, expanding on previous experimental and computational predictions.
From November 5, 2018, NASA was scheduled to begin tests of the effects of supersonic thumps over the course of two weeks to gather feedback. Up to eight thumps a day would be produced at different locations, monitored by 20 noise sensors and described by 400 residents, who would receive a $25 per week compensation. To simulate the thump, an F/A-18 Hornet would dive from 50,000 ft (15,200 m) in order to briefly go supersonic, creating reduced shock waves over Galveston, Texas (an island city), as well as a stronger boom over water. By this stage, Lockheed Martin had begun machining the first parts in Palmdale, California.
In May 2019, the initial major structural parts were loaded in the tooling assembly. In June, assembly was getting underway. The external vision system (XVS) was flight tested on a King Air at NASA Langley. This is to be followed by high speed wind tunnel tests to verify inlet performance predictions with a 9.5%-scale model at NASA Glenn Research Center.
The critical design review was successfully held on September 9–13, before the IRB report to NASA's Integrated Aviation Systems Program by November. After this, 80–90% of the drawings were released to engineering. The wing assembly was to be completed in 2020. In December 2020, construction was halfway completed with the first flight then planned for 2022.
After flight-clearance testing at the Armstrong Flight Research Center, an acoustic validation including air-to-air Schlieren imaging backlit by the Sun to confirm the shockwave pattern testing was slated to be done through September 2022.[needs update] NASA planned to conduct flight tests over U.S. cities to verify the safety and performance of the X-59's quiet supersonic technologies and evaluate community responses for regulators, which could enable commercial supersonic travel over land.[needs update]