NASA X-59's Latest Testing Milestone: Simulating Flight From the Ground

NASA X-59's latest testing milestone: Simulating flight from the ground

NASA's X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft successfully completed a critical series of tests in which the airplane was put through its paces for cruising high above the California desert—all without ever leaving the ground.

Lockheed Martin completes static tests of experimental X-59 aircraft

The static tests aimed to verify the correctness of connections across all systems following the completion of structural assembly. Additionally, safety checks were performed, and potential flight failures were simulated to develop procedures for addressing such scenarios. The next phase will involve the aircraft taxiing on the airfield under its own power. This will help assess the aircraft’s behaviour during acceleration and braking on the run…

NASA’s X-59 aircraft takes major step toward first flight with ground simulation testing

NASA’s quiet supersonic research aircraft, the X-59 aircraft, has completed an essential round of testing without ever leaving the ground These evaluations mark a key milestone in the agency’s efforts to bring back supersonic flight over land while eliminating the disruptive sonic booms traditionally associated with it. Simulating flight from the ground As part of NASA’s Quesst mission, the X-59 aircraft underwent ground-based simulation tests d…

NASA X-59’s Latest Testing Milestone: Simulating Flight from the Ground

5 min readPreparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft is seen during its “aluminum bird” systems testing at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California. The test verified how the aircraft’s hardware and software work together, responding to pilot inputs and handling injected system failures. Lockheed Martin / Garry Tice NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic researc…