Nasa unveils quiet supersonic aircraft in effort to revive commercial flights - eviltoast
In launch event on Friday, agency shared plans to test over US cities to see if it’s quiet enough by engaging ‘the people below’

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/10656840

In launch event on Friday, agency shared plans to test over US cities to see if it’s quiet enough by engaging ‘the people below’

Nasa has unveiled a one-of-a-kind quiet supersonic aircraft as part of the US space agency’s mission to make commercial supersonic flight possible.

In a joint ceremony with Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California, on Friday, Nasa revealed the X-59, an experimental aircraft that is expected to fly at 1.4 times the speed of sound – or 925mph (1,488 km/h).

The aircraft, which stands at 99.7ft (30.4 metres) long and 29.5ft wide, has a thin, tapered nose that comprises nearly a third of the aircraft’s full length – a feature designed to disperse shock waves that would typically surround supersonic aircraft and result in sonic booms.

  • Blaze@discuss.tchncs.deOP
    1·
    10 months ago

    I’m not the biggest fan of Lemmyworld, I prefer thematic instances such as Mander.xyz. Maybe we can consider this community as broader than strict astronomy?

    • jadero@mander.xyz
      2·
      10 months ago

      I also prefer thematic instances, but try to find appropriate communities within those instances. Just because it’s coming from NASA, doesn’t make it astronomy.

      Depending on which aspects of the project you think are important and want to discuss there are a few communities here that might be relevant.

      Earth Science includes environment, and environmental impact seems to be the most popular talking point so far.

      Noise and other forms of pollution are public health issues and there is a local community for that, although I’m not sure it’s really a great fit there.

      Physics might be another choice due to the fact that a lot of physics is going into the engineering of something that reduces sonic booms.

      Or maybe you just need to find the right thematic instance. For example, I’m registered on slrpnk for my climate, energy efficiency, and anarchism fixes.

      • Blaze@discuss.tchncs.deOP
        2·
        10 months ago

        I just noticed there is !space@mander.xyz, it could probably fit there. The issues is that it is 10 times smaller than !astronomy.

        Anyway, next time I’ll post something definitely related to space to avoid the doubt