X-59 Quiet Supersonic Flight Community Testing
NASA is designing and building the X-59 research aircraft – a piloted, single-seat supersonic X-plane – with technology that reduces the loudness of a sonic boom to that of a gentle thump. NASA’s aeronautical innovators are leading a team across government and industry to collect data that could allow supersonic flight over land, dramatically reducing travel time within the United States or to anywhere in the world.
NASA has awarded a contract to Harris Miller Miller & Hanson Inc. of Burlington, Massachusetts, to support a national campaign of community overflight tests using the agency’s X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology research aircraft. The scope of the work under this contract includes supporting NASA in the planning, execution, and documentation of phase three of the agency’s Low-Boom Flight Demonstration mission. During phase three, NASA will fly the X-59 aircraft over communities yet to be selected and ask residents to share their response to the sound the aircraft generates during supersonic flight. NASA will provide the results of the community survey and the X-59 acoustic data collected during the community overflight tests to U.S. and international regulators for use in considering new sound-based rules to enable supersonic flight over land.
HMMH will be working with the following subcontractors on the project: Blue Ridge Research and Consulting, LLC; Westat Inc.; EMS Brüel & Kjær Inc. dba Envirosuite; Center for Atmospheric Sciences (CAS) at Hampton University; Spire Global Inc.; Senzig Engineering; and Crown Consulting Inc. The Hampton University team will make meteorological measurements during the test flights, which help characterize the atmosphere through which the acoustical signal propagates, after it is produced by the X-59 aircraft.
This brief project description was derived primarily from the statements found at https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-selects-contractor-for-quiet-supersonic-flight-community-testing and https://hmmh.com/resources/news-insights/news/nasa-awards-x-59-selects-contractor-for-quiet-supersonic-flight-community-testing-contract-to-hmmh/. Much more information about the project is available at https://www.nasa.gov/X59