NASA has finally raised the curtain on what could be the first supersonic aircraft to take to the skies in more than two decades. Nicknamed ‘son of Concorde’, the agency’s new aircraft, 30 meters long, called X-59, can fly at a speed of 937 miles per hourfaster than the speed of sound.

If you have permission for commercial travel, The $247.5 million plane could fly from London to New York in less than four hoursbut fundamentally without emitting a loud ‘sonic boom’ as Concorde did.

The X-59’s engine is located in the upper portion of the ship to produce a quieter “thump” compared to the Concorde. the last supersonic aircraft to fly. The front part of Representing almost a third of its length, the X-59 breaks the shock waves that normally result in a supersonic aircraft creating a sonic boom.

The X-59 was developed by the American space company Lockheed Martin after the POT awarded a $247.5 million design contract in 2016. The two partners presented themselves on Friday the new futuristic aircraft at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works division in Palmdale, California.

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“This is an important achievement It was only possible thanks to the hard work and ingenuity of NASA and the entire X-59 team.″ said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. “NASA’s X-59 will help change the way we travel, bringing us closer together in much less time.”

Due to the strange configuration of the X-59, The cabin is located almost halfway along the length of the aircraft and the craft does not have a forward-facing window. Instead, engineers developed the so-called ‘External Vision System’, an array of high-resolution cameras feeding a 4K monitor in the cabin.

According to NASA it is The aircraft will make its first take-off later this year, followed by its first silent supersonic flight. Engineers will conduct several flight tests of the aircraft at Skunk Works before transferring it to NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in California, which will serve as a base of operations.

Ultimately, the goal of the X-59 project eliminate the noisy sonic booms that reverberated across cities in the Concorde era, while traveling at speeds of Mach 1.4. A sonic boom occurs when shock waves from an object traveling through the air faster than the speed of sound merge before reaching the ground.

Sonic booms generate enormous amounts of sound energy, about 110 decibels, like the sound of an explosion or thunder. The loud booms heard every time a Concorde broke the sound barrier were often described as disturbing by the public, meaning it has never replaced conventional aircraft.

Meanwhile, the X-59 is designed to prevent shock waves from merging (caused by the movement of air particles when an aircraft breaks the sound barrier). NASA hopes reduce the sound of the sonic boom to a quiet boom, similar to the sound of thunder rumbling in the distance. Once NASA completes flight testing this year, the agency will fly the plane over U.S. cities, which have not yet been selected. (JO)