Author Topic: NASA Administrator to Make X-Plane Announcement at Reagan National Media Event  (Read 119343 times)

Offline Star One

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Past and future X-Planes.


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Electric X-Plane Nears Crucial Battery Test

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NASA is preparing to test a redesigned lithium-ion battery module for its first electric propulsion demonstrator, the X-57 Maxwell, as it moves toward a maiden flight planned for early in 2018. The ground test will replicate one performed in December that resulted in a destructive thermal runaway and required the packaging to be redesigned. That test involved deliberately initiating a short circuit in one battery cell to ensure the overheating did not spread to other cells—but it ...

http://m.aviationweek.com/business-aviation/electric-x-plane-nears-crucial-battery-test

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Success With Low-Boom X-plane Critical To NASA’s Aeronautics Vision

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We may not recall them all, but those we do remember hold special places in aviation history. The X-1 in which Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in 1947. The X-15 in which Pete Knight reached Mach 6.7 in 1967. The X-43 that hit Mach 9.6 on scramjet power in 2004. They are the X-planes. Aviation afficionados will recall even more: the X-5 that pioneered variable wing sweep, the X-24 lifting bodies, forward-swept-wing X-29 and thrust-vectoring X-31—the international X-plane. Then ...

http://m.aviationweek.com/commercial-aviation/success-low-boom-x-plane-critical-nasa-s-aeronautics-vision

Offline Star One

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NASA X-Plane Gets Closer to Electric Flight

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NASA's next X-plane, the all-electric X-57 Maxwell, is getting closer to its maiden flight. Engineers at Scaled Composites in Mojave, California, along with prime contractor on the program Empirical Systems Aerospace (ESAero), are preparing to integrate electric systems into a Tecnam P2006T to convert it to the X-57. The first electric version of the aircraft, known as Mod II, will replace the P2006T's gas-driven Rotax engines with electric motors and a battery pack to power the plane.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/a21564893/nasa-x-plane-gets-closer-to-electric-flight/

Offline Star One

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NASA’s Experimental Supersonic Aircraft Now Known as X-59 QueSST

NASA’s newest experimental aircraft, designed with quiet supersonic technology and intended to help open a new era in faster-than-sound air travel over land, will forever be known in the history books as the X-59 QueSST.
The U.S. Air Force, which is the government entity responsible for assigning X-number designations and the popular name associated with the aircraft, officially informed NASA of their decision on June 26.

“For everyone working on this important project, this is great news and we’re thrilled with the designation,” said Jaiwon Shin, NASA’s associate administrator for aeronautics.

“I’m confident that the contributions the X-59 QueSST will make to our nation and the world will ensure its place among the greatest NASA X-planes ever flown,” Shin said.

The X-plane number designation continues a tradition of naming important experimental aircraft and rockets that dates back to 1947 and the X-1, the rocket-powered airplane that Chuck Yeager flew to become the first human to fly faster than the speed of sound.

And while that famous X-1 was nicknamed the Glamourous Glennis, for Yeager’s wife, today’s X-59 takes its QueSST nickname from the quiet supersonic technology the aircraft will be equipped with.

Now under construction by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company at its famed Skunk Works plant in Palmdale, Calif., the X-59 QueSST is designed so that when flying supersonic, people on the ground will hear nothing more than a sonic thump – if anything at all.

Once fully tested and pronounced safe to fly within the National Airspace, the X-59 in late 2022 will begin making supersonic flights over select communities to measure residents’ reactions to any noise they might hear.

The scientifically valid data gathered from these community overflights will be presented to U.S. and international regulators, who will use the information to help them come up with rules based on noise levels that enable new commercial markets for supersonic flight over land.

Jim Banke
Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate

Last Updated: June 27, 2018

https://www.nasa.gov/aero/nasa-experimental-supersonic-aircraft-x-59-quesst/

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NASA Prepares for Future of Supersonic Experimental Flight


Offline TripleSeven

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NASA Prepares for Future of Supersonic Experimental Flight



safe flights...and good fortune...and "like" button :)

Offline Star One

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A Look Inside the X-59 QueSST Cockpit

The pilot of NASA’s X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology, or QueSST, aircraft will navigate the skies in a cockpit unlike any other. There won’t be a forward-facing window. That’s right; it’s actually a 4K monitor that serves as the central window and allows the pilot to safely see traffic in his or her flight path, and provides additional visual aids for airport approaches, landings and takeoffs. The 4K monitor, which is part of the aircraft’s eXternal Visibility System, or XVS, displays stitched images from two cameras outside the aircraft combined with terrain data from an advanced computing system. The two portals and traditional canopy are real windows however, and help the pilot see the horizon. The displays below the XVS will provide a variety of aircraft systems and trajectory data for the pilot to safely fly.

The XVS is one of several innovative solutions to help ensure the X-59’s design shape reduces a sonic boom to a gentle thump heard by people on the ground. Though not intended to ever carry passengers, the X-59 boom-suppressing technology and community response data could help lift current bans on supersonic flight over land and enable a new generation of quiet supersonic commercial aircraft. Click here to learn more.

Offline john smith 19

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NASA Prepares for Future of Supersonic Experimental Flight

And it's being built by LM.

I'm not sure how long it's been since LM did a civilian crewed aerospace programme after the X33.

Let's hope it's more X-15 than X33 in terms of success.

And let's also remember this is due to a blanket ban on M1 flying over civilian areas which was based on little or no data beyond. "M1 makes sonic boom. Sonic boom bad." :(
MCT ITS BFR SS. The worlds first Methane fueled FFSC engined CFRP SS structure A380 sized aerospaceplane tail sitter capable of Earth & Mars atmospheric flight.First flight to Mars by end of 2022 TBC. T&C apply. Trust nothing. Run your own #s "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof" R. Simberg."Competitve" means cheaper ¬cheap SCramjet proposed 1956. First +ve thrust 2004. US R&D spend to date > $10Bn. #deployed designs. Zero.

Offline Robotbeat

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X-59 is only barely civilian. This subscale one is basically a weirdly shaped fighter jet.
Chris  Whoever loves correction loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.

To the maximum extent practicable, the Federal Government shall plan missions to accommodate the space transportation services capabilities of United States commercial providers. US law http://goo.gl/YZYNt0

Offline RotoSequence

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X-59 is only barely civilian. This subscale one is basically a weirdly shaped fighter jet.

It's not much of a fighter jet (with all those stabilators and canards and no signature control, it would never be allowed to fly), but there's little doubt that Lockheed's interested in the less-civil applications of quiet, sustained supersonic flight.

Offline Star One

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X-59 is only barely civilian. This subscale one is basically a weirdly shaped fighter jet.

It's not much of a fighter jet (with all those stabilators and canards and no signature control, it would never be allowed to fly), but there's little doubt that Lockheed's interested in the less-civil applications of quiet, sustained supersonic flight.

I am not sure that’s totally true as I am sure I read something this about LM thinking about developing this into a civilian airliner.

Offline Proponent

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Does LM currently produce any civilian products? Lockheed crashed out of civilian air transport about 50 years ago, and I wouldn't think it's commercial reflexes would have been sharpened by decades of NASA/military contracting.
« Last Edit: 06/22/2019 06:26 pm by Proponent »

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Offline ncb1397

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Does LM currently produce any civilian products? Lockheed crashed out of civilian air transport about 50 years ago, and I wouldn't think it's commercial reflexes would have been sharpened by decades of NASA/military contracting.

Assuming you mean commercial (NASA is civilian for example), Sikorsky does which Lockheed Martin owns.

edit: They apparently are introducing a commercial variant of the C-130 called the LM-100J.
« Last Edit: 06/22/2019 06:43 pm by ncb1397 »

Offline Robotbeat

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Yeah, a supersonic jet would be kind of another category, like freighters or twin turboprop passenger aircraft (both of which Lockheed sells commercially). So it's not crazy that Lockheed would make a commercial supersonic jet.


...but it also isn't a guarantee, either. I love x-planes, but they have to transition to operational aircraft eventually.
Chris  Whoever loves correction loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.

To the maximum extent practicable, the Federal Government shall plan missions to accommodate the space transportation services capabilities of United States commercial providers. US law http://goo.gl/YZYNt0

Offline Nighthawk117

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NASA Prepares for Future of Supersonic Experimental Flight

And it's being built by LM.

I'm not sure how long it's been since LM did a civilian crewed aerospace programme after the X33.

Let's hope it's more X-15 than X33 in terms of success.

We know one thing for certain.....The track record of LMSW far exceeds that of REL...or any other British aerospace company.

Offline john smith 19

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It's not much of a fighter jet (with all those stabilators and canards and no signature control, it would never be allowed to fly), but there's little doubt that Lockheed's interested in the less-civil applications of quiet, sustained supersonic flight.
Indeed. "Silent but deadly," to coin a phrase.  :)

Paradoxically none of the countries it overflew ever seemed to have complained about the boom from the M3 SR71 overflights.

I guess they stop being a problem at 80 000 ft in the way they are at 40 000 ft. Maybe some research on that phenomenon would have been a good idea?

In principle any (so far hypothetical) "quiet" fighter would still generate a detectable sound (not as objectionable as the double "crack" but detectable with modern signal processed sensors) and the air heating would continue to light up the display on IR sensors  (standard equipment on most modern combat aircraft IIRC)

Then of course you've got the engine problem. Concorde super cruised for 3 decades without afterburner, and was viewed as a bit of a fuel hog, back when oil was $3/barrel (yes really  :o ). 4 decades later and it will have to do even better.

Not visible on radar <> not visible on other sensors 
MCT ITS BFR SS. The worlds first Methane fueled FFSC engined CFRP SS structure A380 sized aerospaceplane tail sitter capable of Earth & Mars atmospheric flight.First flight to Mars by end of 2022 TBC. T&C apply. Trust nothing. Run your own #s "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof" R. Simberg."Competitve" means cheaper ¬cheap SCramjet proposed 1956. First +ve thrust 2004. US R&D spend to date > $10Bn. #deployed designs. Zero.

 

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