30 ground stations will be installed for testing.
The American space agency is preparing to begin testing the supersonic laboratory aircraft X-59 Questst. With its help, NASA intends to test technologies that reduce the volume of supersonic flights.
There is a ban on flights of civil supersonic aircraft throughout the United States: it was introduced due to the characteristic loud bang when switching to supersonic. NASA believes that technology has reached a level where this cotton can be drowned out.
The X-59 is designed so that when it goes supersonic, the sound wave travels upward rather than downward. To test the plane, NASA engineers will install 30 ground tracking stations.
The video released by the agency shows testing of these stations. Research modifications of the F-15 and F-18 available to NASA were used for testing.
Moving at supersonic speed, the planes flew over several ground stations: this is how engineers made sure that the devices worked and could provide the necessary data. The next step is the flight of the X-59 itself.
NASA hopes that if the X-59 turns out to be quiet enough, aircraft manufacturers can adopt its technology and implement it in their aircraft. There is no word on when the first test flight will take place.
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