NASA and Lockheed Martin’s strange-looking X-59 plane is set to fly early in 2023, and it is designed to break the sound barrier quietly rather than creating a huge sonic boom
Technology
3 January 2023
A composite image showing what NASA’s X-59 plane will look like when it tries to break the sound barrier quietly Lockheed Martin
NASA’s experimental X-59 plane is scheduled to take to the skies early in 2023 to see if it can break the sound barrier without creating a huge sonic boom. If it works, it could lead to the return of commercial airliners that can travel faster than the speed of sound, as Concorde used to do.
The X-59, which will take off from Palmdale, California, is built by Lockheed Martin …