NASA schedules X-59 media day
NASA announced a media teleconference on March 19 to discuss upcoming X-59 test flights after the demonstrator’s second flight in California — the program will focus on acoustic data and validating CFD-driven shock‑shaping strategies. The update ties directly into FAA/ICAO work on overland supersonic noise standards and gives aerodynamicists a rare, public look at simulation-to-flight validation for sonic‑boom mitigation.
Participants listed for the media call include Amit Kshatriya (NASA associate administrator), Cathy Bahm (project manager, Low‑Boom Flight Demonstrator, Armstrong), Peter Coen (Quesst mission integration manager, Langley), test pilots Jim “Clue” Less and Nils Larson, and Lockheed Martin X‑59 project manager Pat LeBeau. (nasa.gov) The X‑59 completed engine‑run testing at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center on March 12 and the second flight profile calls for a taxi from the Armstrong hangar to Edwards AFB followed by a roughly one‑hour sortie that reaches about 230 mph at 12,000 ft and 260 mph at 20,000 ft. (nasa.gov) NASA will move into an envelope‑expansion campaign reported to begin with roughly 10 expansion flights and to push toward mission test points near 55,000 ft and up to Mach 1.5 ahead of community overflights. (aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org) The acoustic validation plan centers on a long linear array—about 48 km of range—made up of roughly 125 ground recording system (GRS) units that log waveform and spectral data for the dose‑response community surveys. (aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org) Pre‑flight work includes high‑fidelity CFD and wind‑tunnel campaigns that produced schlieren shock patterns matching earlier CFD predictions, and NASA‑developed prediction tools that extract near‑field pressure signatures and propagate them to ground noise carpets for direct simulation‑to‑flight comparison. (aviationweek.com) NASA’s Quesst team will deliver community‑response and acoustic datasets to the FAA and ICAO’s Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection to inform en‑route noise certification, and a recent U.S. regulatory notice has directed the FAA to develop an interim noise‑based standard for overland supersonic flight. (ntrs.nasa.gov)
