Supersonic flight without sonic boom

When crossing the sound barrier, supersonic planes generate a series of shock waves that merge into two distinct booms. Aircraft drag these incredibly loud sounds along their flight path, creating unacceptable noise levels on the ground. Until now, sonic booms have slowed the widespread deployment of commercial supersonic flight over land, but fixing the noise problem could enable them, and could easily cut flight time for each leg in half.

NASA has been working for some time on technology to significantly reduce the noise generated by the phenomenon. With this technology, a commercial supersonic aircraft could be quiet enough to routinely fly over populated areas.

The X-59 experimental aircraft will be used to validate the design tools and technologies that allow an aircraft to be designed with a shape, different from the conventional one, that alters the behavior of supersonic shock waves. Instead of coming together to form a loud boom, the shock waves do not merge. They quickly weaken, giving rise to a soft sound, according to Gautam Shah of the NASA Langley Research Center in the United States.

NASA will carry out a series of test flights over various communities in the United States. Shah and his colleagues will measure the sound of the plane at each almost and conduct public surveys to learn the response of the public to different noise levels.

NASA X-59 aircraft. (Photo: NASA)

The first flight will take place in 2023, followed by 18 months of testing to confirm the aircraft’s performance and safety. NASA plans to conduct a series of four to six populated tests in areas across the country from 2025 to 2026, with final conclusions in 2027. (Source: NCYT by Amazings)