Avionics News June 2021 - 77

sonic boom. By the time it reached the ground, the smoother
sound was less annoying to people.
The studies with the X-59 will be higher fidelity with
an aircraft shape optimized for the tests. NASA will also
canvass a more diverse set of participants on the ground. The
agency has been doing sonic boom tests with the F-18 for 15
years. Low-boom research started a decade before that, and
supersonic research goes back six decades. The X-59 has been
in development since 2012, and the agency continues to perfect
software that models how a sonic wave propagates from the
aircraft to the ground through the atmosphere. This software is
available for use by aerospace companies.
NASA to deliver data
NASA is going to be disseminating the data the agency
collects on the performance of the X-59 EVS to the public and
to avionics manufacturers in particular. " If they want to design a
closed cockpit or a supersonic vehicle, this is the data that might
help them toward that goal, " he said. The level of technology
readiness should be high enough for a company to use it to
develop a commercially viable XVS product. As commercialoff-the-shelf
technology improves, XVS may be used by drone
operators.
One advantage of a closed cockpit is there is no window so
no one can shine a laser into the cockpit. And the military loves
the idea of a closed cockpit, according to Bailey, " because,
again, they can completely enclose the pilot. " It would even be
possible to put armor instead of a transparency over the head of
the pilot.
There is a joke that avionics designers tell about closed
cockpit possibilities. If the pilot can fly an airline aircraft
from the last row in coach, then marketers might get the bright
idea of turning over the cockpit upfront to passengers paying
a premium for the view. It's funny, but if you consider how
marketers sometimes think, watch out.
At Palmdale, Lockheed is far along in the fabrication of the
X-59 and doing a lot of integration with ground testing expected
to begin this fall. It looks like an F-16 on steroids with a longer
nose, higher swept wing and lower profile wherever possible.
The first flight will occur in the summer of 2022 at Edwards Air
Force Base where NASA's Armstrong Laboratory is located. All
of NASA's research centers are involved in the project.
Acoustic validation flights will occur at Edwards in 2023
to make sure the sonic thump works as expected. And after
gathering community data for three years, NASA hopes the
findings in 2027 might usher in a new commercial era of
supersonic air travel over land as well as water. q
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Avionics News June 2021

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