A supersonic jet designed to make very little noise took to the air for the first time this week, flying over the southern California desert just after sunrise, according to NASA, in what could be the first step toward much faster commercial travel.
NASA and American arms and aerospace manufacturer Lockheed Martin A jet capable of traveling faster than the speed of sound was successfully tested on Tuesday.
Airplanes have been capable of flying at supersonic speeds since the 1940s. The problem is that superfast planes are banned from commercial overland flights because they produce an explosive and frightening “sonic boom” that disturbs the public.
The Concorde supersonic aircraft, operated by British Airways and Air France, has been flying transatlantic flights since the 1970s. But those services were stopped in 2003 after a fatal accident three years earlier reduced demand for the expensive service.
If NASA and Lockheed Martin can successfully reduce volume, the new planes could cut travel times between places like New York and Los Angeles by about half, opening up an entirely new airline industry.
The X-59 is capable of flying faster than the speed of sound with what Lockheed Martin called a “light punch.” Tuesday's test flight was still slower than the speed of sound and was intended primarily to test the plane's structural integrity. However, this event was noted as a significant step towards the widespread use of supersonic travel.
The compact 100-foot (30-meter) plane, launched from Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works in Palmdale, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) north of Los Angeles, flew over the desert and landed near NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) away.
The first plane to travel faster than the speed of sound (767 mph (1,235 km/h)) took off nearly 80 years ago, in 1947, according to NASA. But soon, in response to public opinion polls, flights at that speed were banned over land in the United States. Residents complained that the noise reverberated throughout major cities, rattling windows and frightening the public.
NASA and Lockheed Martin have been working for years on a solution that would avoid the noise and lead to regulatory changes, largely to make commercial supersonic flight possible within the United States.
