The question
Can an aircraft travel supersonically without the sonic boom?
But the craft hasnt flown yet.
TheX-59 is designed to cruiseat 925 mph (Mach 1.4) at an altitude of about 55,000 feet.
The X-59 sitting outside its hangar in Palmdale, California.Photo: Lockheed Martin Skunk Works
But first, it has to fly.
Whats next
The X-59s first flight is slated for late 2024.
The sonic thump of the X-59 is as quiet as this airplane can get, Mangelsdorf said.
© Vicky Leta/Gizmodo
And, hopefully, well learn ways to make it quieter once we start flying it.
Thats a fun thought: an even more extreme ratio between the planes length and its width.
Click here to see all of thewinners of the 2024 Gizmodo Science Fair.
A schlieren image of an X-59 model in NASA Glenn’s supersonic wind tunnel. Image: NASA
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