Gallery: X-59 Progress & Development

Lockheed To Build NASA’s Low-Boom Supersonic X-Plane (April 04, 2018)

Uniquely positioned after completing a preliminary design for NASA, Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works was the only bidder to build the low-boom flight demonstrator, but NASA praises the quality of its bid.

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Credit: NASA/Lockheed Martin

NASA Lays Out Plans for Low-Boom X-59 (The Week In Technology, July 2-6, 2018)

Low-boom X-59A QueSST will join the electric-propulsion X-57 Maxwell in NASA's X-plane fleet.

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Credit: NASA

NASA To Use X-59A QueSST Demonstrator To Seek Acceptance Of Low Booms (July 20, 2018)

NASA has laid out a three-phase program to collect data on public acceptance of reduced sonic booms using the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works-developed low-boom demonstrator, which has been designated the X-59A QueSST.

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Lockheed Cuts Metal on NASA’s Low-Boom X-59 (The Week In Technology, Nov. 26-30, 2018)

Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works has cut metal on the X-59 QueSST, beginning manufacture of the first part for NASA’s low-boom flight demonstrator. The single-seat, single-engine experimental aircraft is scheduled to fly in 2021.  The X-59 is being built to collect community response data on the public acceptability of reduced sonic booms. The data will be used by U.S. and international authorities to determine whether a boom standard can be set that will enable lifting of the prohibition on civil supersonic flight over land. X-59 QueSST is scheduled to conduct envelope-expansion flight testing at the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center beginning in 2021. Read the full story. Credit: NASA 

Collins To Supply Flight Deck For NASA’s Low-Boom X-59 (January 17, 2019)

Collins, a unit of United Technologies created in late 2018 by the merger of avionics maker Rockwell Collins and equipment supplier United Technologies Aerospace Systems, will provide flight-deck avionics and an enhanced vision system.

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Credit: NASA

NASA’s External Vision System Is Ready For Low-Boom Supersonic X-59 (June 18, 2019)

Cockpit configuration of the new NASA low-boom supersonic X-plane as it enters assembly phase. Evaluation flights have been completed on an electric forward-facing window that will allow the pilot to fly the supersonic X-59 safely. Credit: Lockheed Martin/NASA

Lockheed Martin Begins Assembly Of X-59 Low-Boom Demonstrator (June 18, 2019)

The cockpit will be dominated by the large upper XVS conformal display and twin Collins Pro Line Fusion displays.

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Credit: Lockheed Martin

Pilots To Get Used To Not Having A Forward Window - Use Displays Instead (June 18, 2019)

Lockheed Martin's X-59 cockpit mockup is set to become the systems integration lab with Collins Aerospace and NASA-provided equipment.

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Credit: Lockheed Martin

Buildup Of First Composite Skin Panels Began On The Skunk Works’ Large Fiber-Placement Machines (June 18, 2019)

First spars in the jig emphasize the pronounced gulling of the inboard wing for low boom.

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Credit: Lockheed Martin

Visibilty Is Essential (September 23, 2019)

The length of the X-59’s nose is 50 ft. from the pilot’s reference eyepoint to the tip. More than half the X-59's length is forward of the pilot's eyepoint, blocking forward visibility in all phases of flight.

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Credit: Lockheed Martin

XVS Comprises A 4k-resolution Color Camera Mounted On X-59’s Nose (September 23, 2019)

Where the XVS cannot see through clouds, enhanced-vision sensor imagery in the lower slice penetrates to show terrain.

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Credit: Graham Warwick/AW&ST

XVS Head-Up-Display Image Superimposed On Pilot’s View Through Electronic Forward-Facing Window (September 23, 2019)

The target aircraft is visible on the XVS display just outside the diamond indicating its ADS-B position. The monochrome slice is FVS.

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Credit: Graham Warwick/AW&ST

Pilots Evaluating NASA’s External Vision System For X-59 (August 28, 2019)

Lockheed MartinArtist's concept of X-59.

NASA Tests Techniques For X-59 Low-Boom Flights (May 26, 2021)

Validating the quiet supersonic performance of NASA’s X-59 QueSST low-boom flight demonstrator will require precise measurement of the shock waves generated by the aircraft and how they propagate through the atmosphere to the ground. This photograph shows NASA F-15 pilots used the Aligns software and tablet to position precisely in the shock wave from an F/A-18.

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Credit: NASA

X-59A Makes Progress, Faces Challenges, NASA IG Says (May 12, 2020)

General Electric has shipped the first F414-100 engine to Lockheed Martin Skunk Works to power NASA’s X-59A QueSST low-boom supersonic flight demonstrator as an audit says the project is making progress but faces cost and schedule challenges. NASA’s X-59 will gather data on community responses to reduced sonic booms.

Credit: Lockheed Martin

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X-59 Structural Trials Will Pave Way For Upcoming Flight Tests (January 21, 2022)

X-59 undergoes proof tests in Texas ahead of first flight in California later in 2022.

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Credit: Lockheed Martin

Structural Proof Tests Of The X-59 Low-Boom Supersonic Demonstrator At Fort Worth Facility (January 21, 2022)

The 76-deg. sweep of the X-59’s sharply angled wing is evident in this image taken before the aircraft was shipped from Skunk Works.

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Credit: Lockheed Martin