this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2024
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In launch event on Friday, agency shared plans to test over US cities to see if it’s quiet enough by engaging ‘the people below’

Nasa has unveiled a one-of-a-kind quiet supersonic aircraft as part of the US space agency’s mission to make commercial supersonic flight possible.

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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[–] JudahBenHur@lemm.ee 30 points 8 months ago (4 children)

pretty neat that the image of the plane for the article is shot from so close that you can only see 1/3 of it, but to be fair it does include the screens of people's phones as they take a picture of the thing. kind of like going to a concert.

[–] Nudding@lemmy.world 12 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Haha I wonder about the ungodly amount of fuel it burns.

[–] curiousPJ@lemmy.world 9 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)
[–] Nudding@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Old news now. The evil in the hearts of humans will be our collective undoing.

[–] greedytacothief@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

I'm not so sure it's their hearts, those are full of blood. It's more like a system that incentivises people to make immortal decisions for profit.

[–] Steve@startrek.website 5 points 8 months ago

The website blasted me in the ass with ads, while simultaneously begging for donations

[–] Marsupial@quokk.au 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Yeah but with the pictures on the phones, we actually end up with more picture per picture with this method.

[–] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 1 points 8 months ago

Yo dawg, I heard you like pictures

[–] XeroxCool@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

It's proportions make it hard to frame it for an article headline picture. This is cropped to show a colorful array of the fun parts: cockpit, landing gear engine intake with a clear X-59. It's like trying to make a cover picture feature a pencil.

This other article uses a dramatic background to fill the space. It's from NASA though, so they're not limited to the conference. They don't have to have their own picture to say "I was there"

https://kbin.social/m/technology@lemmy.world/t/758938

[–] Landsharkgun@midwest.social 17 points 8 months ago (16 children)

Please don't. We need to be reducing air travel, not increasing it. Go invent a quiet supersonic train or something.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

the transatlantic railway is feeling less and less like a funny absurdist joke by the hour

[–] MrBusiness@lemmy.zip 3 points 8 months ago

Let's get started on the Snowpiercer too

[–] gaael@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago (2 children)

That is not said often enough, thank you !

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[–] Narauko@lemmy.world 5 points 8 months ago (3 children)

What is your plan for intercontinental travel? Increased ship travel, taking a week and burning massive amounts of crude fuel oil? Just cut off the Americas and Australia from Europe, Africa and Asia for non-commercial purposes? The supersonics have mostly been used for trans-atlantic and trans-pacific travel.

[–] llii@feddit.de 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Less and more efficient airplanes. Supersonic aircraft will consume more fuel.

[–] MrBusiness@lemmy.zip 5 points 8 months ago

Let's get weird with blimps

[–] HollandJim@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

These kinds of comments only say it’s wrong; they never make a valid contribution to finding a solution.

[–] c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The guy you're replying to or the nonce suggesting we shelve all transportation technology and only use trains?

[–] HollandJim@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] c0mbatbag3l@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

Oh good, he has too many upvotes for me to assume but I figured.

It's such a shame, you'd think these communities would be about how advancement is always good due to it unlocking new possibilities. For example, maybe this aircraft will open up doors in hypersonic flight that could be used to make more efficient SSTO model and get us less dependent on fossil fuels for chemical rockets via traditional means. Or allows materials science to make a leap forward that revolutionizes fusion.

To just say "why are we doing this?" Is an absolutely insane perspective for R&D and a fundamental misunderstanding of the way we develop technologies.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

sailing and solar power exists, and i'm pretty dang certain we could get an ocean liner to cross the atlantic in less than a week with modern tech. Also probably still less emissions than air travel considering how absurly much fuel that uses.

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[–] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

That's called a hyperloop, nobody liked the idea.

I think the next innovation will be slow electric powered lighter than air travel. Airships may be the future.

That and these new supersonic planes, they're already happening. Boom supersonic is currently testing their demonstration plane based on this nasa project.

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[–] xkforce@lemmy.world 15 points 8 months ago

Now the fuel efficiency problem needs to be reckened with. The sonic boom was the main reason why supersonic planes were shelved but poor fuel efficiency was the other 800 pound gorilla in the room.

[–] BruceTwarzen@kbin.social 14 points 8 months ago (1 children)

That's what we really need right now. Faster air travel for fewer people.

[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

But how else will the ultra-wealthy jet over to their summer homes in new Zealand when wet bulb temperatures exceed human survival in the Northern Hemisphere?

[–] blazera@kbin.social 10 points 8 months ago (7 children)

Looks to me like a climate change accelerator for rich people. Fewer people per flight, spending more fuel to go faster.

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[–] NESSI3@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It doesn't look like it can hold a lot of people. What's the commercial application? Enabling the ultra wealthy to fly private at mach 1.4 from New York to California?

[–] Kage520@lemmy.world 4 points 8 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@lemmy.world 2 points 8 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.

[–] Anticorp@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

This is pretty amazing! This thing could take people from Los Angeles to NYC in 3 hours. The science behind the noise baffling is really cool.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Wouldn't suborbital flight be a lot more fuel efficient?

[–] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

Not likely. Jet engines are crazy efficient compared to rockets.

And as far as I know there are only 2 or 3 companies who are even attempting to make a fully reusable rocket, and it's really hard.

(Those companies being SpaceX and Stoke aerospace, but Stoke is a long way off. Relativity space was going to do full reusability, but I think they dropped the plan.)

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