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 ...
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 ...
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.
NASA Prepares for Future of Supersonic Experimental Flight
X-59 is only barely civilian. This subscale one is basically a weirdly shaped fighter jet.
Quote from: Robotbeat on 06/22/2019 12:35 pmX-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.
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.
Quote from: Star One on 08/23/2018 08:26 pmNASA 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.
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.