Released by NASA: Lockheed's quiet supersonic aircraft will become a reality next year

Released by NASA: Lockheed's quiet supersonic aircraft will become a reality next year 

A falling car door instead of a sonic boom

The aircraft should reach speeds of up to 1,512 km / h at a height of 17 kilometers. Thanks to the newly developed Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST), you will hardly notice anything down here on earth. To do this, the engineers gave the aircraft a new shape. According to her calculations,

 the noise on earth should not be louder than a falling car door. To verify this claim, the test flights will take place over selected US cities.There, the researchers can, as it were, observe the reactions of the population live. The final assembly should also go relatively quickly because a first prototype already exists. This was extensively tested in the wind tunnel. The engineers already have a wealth of data.

New procedures are to be certified

At the end of next year, NASA experts will once again be informed in more detail about the progress of the project.Then the approval for the first test flight could also be granted. The long-term goal is to develop a supersonic aircraft that can be used in civil aviation.To this end, NASA and Lockheed Martin are jointly investing around $ 250 million to test and verify selected processes.The data obtained will also be made available to the US Congress. Ultimately, legislators have to decidewhether newly developed supersonic aircraft are allowed to fly over inhabited areas. Lockheed Martin is also not the only company working on such technology.The same appliesfor example for the startup boom .