In a joint ceremony with Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California, on Friday, Nasa revealed the X-59, an experimental aircraft that is expected to fly at 1.4 times the speed of sound – or 925mph (1,488 km/h).

The aircraft, which stands at 99.7ft (30.4 metres) long and 29.5ft wide, has a thin, tapered nose that comprises nearly a third of the aircraft’s full length – a feature designed to disperse shock waves that would typically surround supersonic aircraft and result in sonic booms.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

[–] Kage520 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

They are still in the prototype stage. If they can prove the physics on small planes, they can scale up for commercial ones.

[–] eskimofry 1 points 10 months ago

They can't scale up without scaling up their costs. Proving the physics is easy (because concorde already did some of the hard work). It's quite challenging to convince anyone that this is nothing but posterity for rich people.