From Oct. 30, engineers attached to NASA's X-59 Quesst programme (Quiet SuperSonic Technology) have been conducting tests of the jet's engines at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California.
The tests are split into phases. Engineers were doing just low-speed ground tests, with the engine running without lighting it off to leaks and check that all of the aircraft's systems play nice when they are in gear on their own. Next, the X-59 was fueled and flight engine low power checked. To date, program engineers report that the plane is performing well.
"The first phase of the engine tests was really a warmup to make sure that everything looked good prior to running the engine," said Jay Brandon, chief engineer for the X-59, in a NASA statement."Then we moved to the actual first engine start. That took the engine out of the preservation mode that it had been in since installation on the aircraft. It was the first check to see that it was operating properly and that all the systems it impacted — hydraulics, electrical system, environmental control systems, etc. — seemed to be working."
The X-59 was designed to fly faster than the speed of sound and yet not create a thunderous sonic boom with there loudness being associated when one broke through such barrier. For the present, supersonic flight is illegal over land within a designated distance of any part of the U.S. by FAA decree. NASA's hope is that the X-59 can prove supersonic flight without earth-shattering sonic booms are possible, which could allow aircraft systems to be built capable of doing so and cut domestic travel times in half — not just for commercial air traffic but also improving disaster response time or medical transport from one side of the nation to another.
The long, nose-like structure of the X-59—basically occupies 38 feet (11.5 meters) of its total length: 99.7 foot (30m)—has a unique geometry designed to help minimize how much sound reaches the ground below by optimising supersonic air flow over aircraft surfaces.
NASA states that the jet will only sound a "thump" rather than hear it's going to get hit, which should be similar in volume as someone slamming a car door from outside (though not inside).
Due to its very long nose, however, forward vision from the cockpit of an X-59 is poor. The cockpit doesn't even have a forward-facing window, or canopy,) Instead it features an XVS ('eXternal Vision System'), camera with view to the front displayed in augmented reality on one of two screens built into that door.
"Truly, this is a revolutionary technology that illuminates a path to break through the historical barrier of visibility in aircraft design," added NASA deputy administrator Pam Melroy at an X-59 unveiling ceremony in January 2024.
"This isn't the end of the excitement but a small steppingstone to the beginning," said Paul Dees, deputy propulsion lead for the X-59 program, in NASA's statement.
"It's like the first note of a symphony, where years of teamwork behind the scenes are now being put to the test to prove our efforts have been effective, and the notes will continue to play a harmonious song to flight."
The next set of tests will amount to feeding the aircraft's computer systems with data for normal and failure conditions to test how it behaves. After that, the X-59 will move on to taxi testing in which the jet "drives" out of its hangar onto a runway and tests how control surfaces respond at various speeds while braking and using engine power.
The X-59 has not been given a firm date for its first flight. The X-59 will later fly over some US cities to gather data on the softer "thumps" that Quesst makes and understand how people living underneath its flight path hear it.
But just achieving that point has taken years of development and testing for the X-59. NASA has been investigating low-boom supersonic technologies for years.
NASA received initial funding for the project in 2018 and brought on Lockheed Martin to build its low-boom supersonic jet later that year. It was christened the Pilatus - experimental aircraft in 2019 Originally, NASA hoped to be done with the X-59 by 2020; however production of the plane was slowed down due to COVID-19.
It was not until January 2024, after a great deal of waiting that the jet would be released to the public. The Flight Readiness Review in May confirmed that testing plan and provided advice to NASA and Lockheed Martin as they work toward the X-59's first flight.
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