NASA and Lockheed Martin formally debuted the agency’s X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft Friday. Using this one-of-a-kind experimental airplane, NASA aims to
Looks like 1950s retro futurism version of a jet
In the future people will even be able to play chess with someone across the world, and even order a pizza to their door on the telephone.
and even order a pizza to their door on the telephone.
While living on the moon. (50s futurists aimed high.)
If we hadn’t wasted all our time and resources on wars and luxury yachts we probably would be
I agree. But sadly, a lot of progress is driven buy conflict as well.
Unless a nation is under an existential threat there is little motivation to invest in progress.
If you can order a missile strike a country away, you should bee able to put a pizza in it. Progress
You can’t fool me. That’s an H type Nubian yacht from star wars.
What’s a Nubian?
Shut the fuck up! Now Vader, he’s a spiritual brother, with the force and all that shit. Then this cracker Skywalker gets his hands on a lightsaber, and the boy decides he’s goinna run the fucking universe - gets a whole Klan of whites together, and they’re gonna bust up Vader’s 'hood - the Death Star. Now what the fuck do you call that?
Intergalactic Civil War?
If they are taking about an “X-59” it’s because the classified tests on the “X-109” went well.
What is the X-109?
It’s classified.
I can’t even find the existence of the name, which would be quite unusual.
That woosh definitely made a sonic boom
It’s G-14 classified.
Just mentioning that a G-15 classified project is classified as such, is a serious crime. I will report to the authorities before they… Someone is already at my door!
Hello.
“NASA aims to gather data that could revolutionize air travel, paving the way for a new generation of commercial aircraft that can travel faster than the speed of sound.”
I think that is definitely just a cover because they don’t want to admit they’re actually developing supersonic stealth planes for the military.
I think that is definitely just a cover because they don’t want to admit
they’rethey’ve actuallydevelopingdeveloped supersonic stealth planes for the military.Ftfy
What they reveal openly is usually from years ago. A couple aerospace friends are always like "yea, we heard scuttlebut about that about 5 years ago, so that means it was already a thing 10 years ago*, haha.
Well hiding the giant boom is probably a good stepping stone to that so yeah
From the eyewitness accounts of whistle blowers, traditional propulsion and modern propulsion are old tech compared to what they have today. Silent and extremely fast already exists.
This appears to be designed for taking out zeppelins
Looks like something you will see in Ace Combat.
Guys, check out the cockpit.
I know technology is wildly advanced and he probably has a 360 view now, but other than test pilots, who are you going to get to fly a plane that lacks a forward view?
With that huge honker of a nose, it’s not like you’d see much anyway. Entire cities could hide behind that
One of the material issues with supersonic is friction heat buildup. Probably can’t have a front windshield at that speed.
Cameras and instrumentation will do just fine tho
The heat is from compression, not friction. And besides that, this thing is only flying at mach 1.5, there are TONS of aircraft that fly at those speeds (and much faster) with windshields.
The reason it doesn’t have a front windshield is because the change in shape of the aircraft at the windshield, to be more vertical, was disrupting their method of reducing the sonic boom. The aircraft needs the shape it has, so a windshield would have to be like 20 feet long to offer any forward visibility.
Neat. Thanks for the info!
Looks like there’s a forward facing camera.
but other than test pilots, who are you going to get to fly a plane that lacks a forward view?
This plane will only be flown by test pilots. Its a technology demonstrator. Researchers build one of these to test concepts in physics in the real world.
No instruments, just a microphone to talk to ChatGPT.
Basically Stealth IRL.
BTW, fucking coolest, most underrated movie ever IMO
With that speed you aren’t able to react to anything visible in the flightpath anyway 💨
It’s not supersonic during landing or taxing, which I guess is when a direct view would be more useful.
I wasn’t serious.
It’s correct, though. By the time anything is big enough to be visible to the eye, it’s far too late to change course. That’s what radar is for.
During takeoff, landing, or any ground movement, I’m sure they use instruments first and cameras second. And ground guides or just tugs.
laughs in P-51 mustang
You know planes fly at night yeah, when you can’t see things
Oh of course. Landing might not be fun though.
“Across both teams, talented, dedicated, and passionate scientists, engineers, and production artisans have collaborated to develop and produce this aircraft,” said John Clark, vice president and general manager at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works.
What the hell is a production artisan?
Someone with the skills and knowledge to “manually” produce some of the many one-off parts that went into this prototype.
The scientists and engineers may know what kind of part is needed, but it takes a different skillset to produce it.
So like the welders for the Russian rocket engines that were produced 50 years ago? Seems those welds are something we aren’t sure how they did it.
Yeah something like that. Welding is absolutely something that requires skill and talent.
I have a electromechanical engineering degree myself, at some point during my education we had some labs where we did basic welding, milling, lathing and whatnot. The intention was not to become experts at it, but to get notions of what it entails. I quickly understood that theoretical understanding and hands-on experience are entirely different things, and require an entirely different skillset.
Seems those welds are something we aren’t sure how they did it.
ALIENS!!
HOLLY: Oh, I forgot, I haven’t told you the news.
RIMMER: What news?
HOLLY: A signal. We’re getting a signal. It’s probably nothing but I just thought I’d mention it.
RIMMER: (Snaps his fingers) Aliens!
LISTER: Oh god, aliens? Your explanation for anything slightly peculiar is aliens, isn’t it? You lose your keys – it’s aliens. A picture falls off the wall – it’s aliens. That time we used up a whole bog roll in a day – you thought that was aliens as well.
RIMMER: Well we didn’t use it all, Lister. Who did?
LISTER: Rimmer, aliens used our bog roll?
RIMMER: Just ‘cause they’re aliens doesn’t mean to say the don’t have to visit the little boys’ room. Only they probably do something weird and alienesque like it comes out of the top of their heads or something.
LISTER: Well I wouldn’t like to be stuck behind one in a cinema.
Hahahahahaha… Now where’s that gif of that guy?
Individuals that sell billion dollar paintings to the Pentagon.
Lol, people with no sense of humor downvoting you.
Flying hypodermic needle.
Define quiet…
The Sonic Boom will sound more like your neighbours car door closing than an explosion
Even regular planes have negative effects on the neighborhoods they take off and land over. This is definitely going to be worse.
I’ll only believe the “low noise” PR if it flies supersonic directly over Malibu or the Hamptons and Nantucket.
A sonic thump could still be very disturbing. Maybe not break windows, but induce panic I a lot of people.
Oh gosh a noise the volume of a distant car door closing! Panic!
Jesus fucking Christ, we need a word for cunts in the comments who’ll find any fuckin reason to suggest a really specific reason to be against/offended about something on behalf of someone else 😂
Is there a word for that?
Can we make one?
May I suggest a blott?
And what is so bad about not wanting sonic booms of any sort happening over my head?
I was making a point about the 0.00000001% of people that could be distressed by that but you didn’t understand my comment
Sorry, I missed the part were it was such a small number. I also doubt that number is true.
Maybe we just have different ideas of what quiet is…
Yeah, apparently we do…
The problem with Sonic booms isn’t that you notice them, it’s fine to notice the sound of a vehicle traveling overhead. The problem is that the sound from previous supersonic jets has shattered windows all along the flight path, ruptured eardrums and caused moderate hearing loss.That is a problem…
If this instead sounds like a car door closing, I’d call that significantly quieter.
I was at work in a bank (big, sturdy, multiple stories) when we experienced a sonic boom. It was heard/felt across several counties. We thought a bomb had gone off somewhere.
shattered windows
damn…
Great video. Thanks for sharing.
But does the snoot droop
Reminds me of a pterosaur somehow.
Considering that splitting supersonic shockwaves in the air is kind of analogous to splitting the water when plunge-diving for fish (which at least some pterosaurids are hypothesized to have done), that makes sense.
Maybe their ability to go to the bathroom without making any noise was the inspiration?
Yep. Yes. Ahuh… According to my notes this is what we needed…
How about survey what the birds think?
“Ooh Yeh”
- Bird commenting on X-59 project
It’s like a blind Pinocchio flying at the speed of sound controlled by a touch screen. 2024, ladies and gents.
You don’t need any aeronautical experience to fly it, but you need a 28” waist.
What an ignorant statement…
It was a joke.
But no, I don’t believe it’s controlled with a touch screen. Though it is “daring” shall we say… to make a plane with no cockpit windows.
In commercial airliners, nearly the entire flight is now closely monitored and controlled by redundant computer systems. And the pilots rarely use the front window, they mostly fly by instrument.
Cameras as the cockpit windows aren’t really that crazy at this point. Really glass cockpits are a formality.
Glass cockpit is a specific term for flight decks that have replaced analog gauges with digital gauges and screens.
Pilots use the windows all of the time. They use it to look for traffic and for vfr approaches.
It’s really not, flying without looking out the window is very common especially for NASA and the USAF.
It’s really not, flying without looking out the window is very common especially for NASA and the USAF.
Absolutely, in fact it’s not just nasa or military, almost everyone does that. You need to prove that you can fly without looking out the window to get your “instrument rating” and be legally allowed to fly at night. Every instrument flight rated pilot can do it (a majority of pilots). However, airports are lit up with lights, so even at night or in fog, you can see the runway as you’re landing. If you have no windows, you can’t do that, you’ll need someone to guide you down.
That’s not my concern, the issue is a lack of redundancy. If the computers crash or if the vehicle loses power your suddenly have no windows. From a design perspective, it’s a risky choice. Not insurmountable, but it’s a potential problem point. It’s a choice that adds an additional critical single point of failure.
lack of redundancy is a concern, but the same was said for fly by wire cutting the physical link between stick and controls. fly by wire is ubiquitous now, can be made very very safe, and is a net gain for aviation in general.
not having a window is obviously a bigger challenge, but its still a solvable problem.
Yeah, I totally agree. I don’t think this is an insurmountable challenge or anything, just a bold decision.
Yeah but looking out the window as your plane crashes isn’t going to change the fiery death that a system shutdown on a modern airliner will inevitably bring.
I get what you’re saying but a window is a structural trade off too, they’ve obviously done the testing and determined it’s a sensible design choice
Yeah but looking out the window as your plane crashes isn’t going to change the fiery death that a system shutdown on a modern airliner will inevitably bring.
Simply not true.
There are redundant systems for everything on aircraft. You can certainly control the plane without the computers working, and without any instruments working. You can generally control the plane even without power because of redundant hydraulic systems.
Thinking computers are necessary to do anything is wrong when it comes to aircraft.
And obviously the choice to eliminate the windows is entirely a structural design, that’s where you see the benefits, which I’m sure are quite real.
