At the end of December 2019, news appeared in the American media that the assembly of the experimental X-59 QueSST aircraft would be completed by the end of 2020, and the first flight of a unique aircraft could take place in 2021. The uniqueness of the project lies in the fact that the X-59 QueSST aircraft will be able to switch to the supersonic flight mode "silently". According to developers from the Skunk Works company (a division of Lockheed Martin), the noise level when breaking the sound barrier will not exceed the sound of the car door being closed.
X-59 QueSST project NASA and Lockheed Martin
In the history of world aviation, there were only two serial supersonic passenger aircraft. These are the Soviet Tu-144 and the Anglo-French Concorde. After the completion of the operation of the latter in 2003, all passenger aviation in the world is represented only by subsonic airliners. It looks like the situation may change very soon. 17 years after the completion of the operation of the Concorde, the topic of supersonic passenger flights is again becoming relevant. And in the United States, NASA is ready to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in projects designed to improve the capabilities of such aircraft.
Work on a new aircraft project, designated X-59 QueSST (Quiet Supersonic Transport), started in 2016. The aircraft is being developed as part of a collaboration between the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Lockheed Martin Corporation. An important clarification: The X-59 QueSST is not a prototype passenger aircraft and will never carry passengers in the future. This is an experimental aircraft, a demonstrator of technologies, which is being created in the framework of solving a specific problem to reduce the noise level of supersonic aviation.
Currently, the United States has restrictions on flights of supersonic aircraft over populated areas, primarily because of the high noise level. The new aircraft should solve this problem and help revise the established rules, giving such passenger liners a second chance.
As it became known at the end of December 2019, the project to create the X-59 QueSST aircraft entered the home stretch. It is planned to complete the assembly of the machine by the end of 2020, and the first flight of the experimental aircraft may take place in 2021. In this case, in the future, the experimental aircraft will specially fly over populated areas. During such flights, noise data will be taken from the ground, and local residents will be polled to find out their reaction to the sonic boom and the noise level emitted by the X-59 aircraft. The first tests are planned to be carried out in the Mojave Desert in California, where an entire network of sensitive microphones, almost 50 kilometers long, will be installed on the ground.
It is known that the assembly of the aircraft is carried out at the Skunk Works plant in Palmdale (California). The total cost of work on the project is open and is $ 247.500.000. NASA emphasizes the fact that the X-59 QueSST is the company's first manned experimental aircraft (X-aircraft) in the past three decades.
Features of the X-59 QueSST aircraft
Assembly of the X-59 QueSST aircraft is already underway and should be completed by the end of 2020. By this time, the Palmdale plant plans to complete the assembly of the fuselage, wings, empennage and the integration of all major systems, including the innovative cockpit surveillance system. An unusual system is needed as the aircraft has a highly elongated and pointed nose cone, which severely limits the pilot's forward view. To solve this problem, a camera with a 4K resolution and an angle of view of 33 by 19 degrees will be installed in the nose of the aircraft.
Not much is known about the technical characteristics of the experimental aircraft. The maximum flight speed will be 1510 km / h. The task of setting records for the developers is not worth it, and to achieve their goals, this speed is more than enough. At the same time, the aircraft will be able to fly at an altitude of about 17 thousand meters. It is known that the experimental aircraft will be equipped with a General Electric F414-GE-100 turbojet bypass engine (thrust 98 kN). The aircraft crew will consist of one person.
The maximum take-off weight of the X-59 QueSST will be approximately 14,700 kg. The maximum length of the aircraft is over 29 meters, the wingspan is just over 9 meters, and the maximum height is about 4.3 meters. The aircraft will use a three-post retractable landing gear, which was borrowed from the F-16 fighter. The elements of the cockpit are taken from the Northrop T-38 Talon supersonic trainer aircraft.
According to the developers, the sound of an experimental aircraft passing the sound barrier during the transition to supersonic flight speed and the flight itself at supersonic speed will be much quieter than that of existing aircraft. For the listener on the ground, the sound will resemble the usual bang of a closed car door, and not thunder. Various sources indicate that the noise level will be from 60 to 75 dB. This is an order of magnitude less than that of all modern supersonic aircraft, which, when switched to supersonic, provoke a real "sonic boom", the waves of which reach the earth's surface. In the future, the Americans plan to use the proven technologies in civil aviation to create new supersonic airliners that will help revise the rule on the prohibition of flights of supersonic aircraft over populated areas.
To achieve a quiet supersonic flight, designers use a specially designed aircraft design. The aircraft visually highlights the long narrow fuselage and the used aerodynamic "canard" design. All this should help to reduce the noise level. In addition, Skunk Works engineers have paid a lot of attention to the geometry of the aircraft's wing and will install special noise reduction filters around the engine.
Experimental X-59 QueSST being developed by the creators of the U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird
Skunk Works is responsible for the development of the X-59 QueSST experimental aircraft. It is noteworthy that this division of the Lockheed Martin corporation has been specializing in secret developments in the interests of the US Air Force for many years. It was the specialists of this company who were engaged in the development of two of the most famous American reconnaissance aircraft in the history of aviation - the Lockheed U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird. The same company had a hand in the creation of the fifth generation American fighters F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II.
From the very beginning of its existence, Skunk Works, formerly known as Lockheed's Advanced Development Project division, has been positioned as a promising development division. This does not in any way deny the declared civil and commercial component of the new project. But some doubt creeps in. The X-59 QueSST experimental aircraft can be a dual-use product, some of the technologies being tested can later be transferred to military aviation.
It cannot be argued that the technologies tested within the framework of this project will not be used in the future when creating modern high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft or combat aircraft. True, it doesn't make much sense to talk about it with absolute certainty either. There is simply no official confirmation of this.
At the same time, the idea of creating a modern supersonic passenger aircraft is also in circulation in Russia, albeit only at the level of conversations. Earlier, in January 2018 and February 2019, the topic of creating a supersonic passenger liner was raised by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
