In July, Lockheed Martin completed the build of NASA’s X-59 test aircraft, which is designed to turn sonic booms into mere thumps, in the hope of making overland supersonic flight a possibility. Ground tests and a first test flight are planned for later in the year. NASA aims to have enough data to hand over to US regulators in 2027.
People fly first class, people fly businees class. Some have the money.
Also, for some, the time saved is worth much more than what the ticket costs, especially in business (expensive consultants?).
The resulting aircraft/technology can be sold to commercial aviation and/or be used for military purposes
NASA stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration, so it’s kinda in scope
Sold at a loss?
taxpayer money is free, no there’s no loss to begin with
Huh? What kinda question is that?
That is what companies like Boeing and Lockheed are for.
NASA has no business making airplanes for rich passengers.
Concorde wasn’t profitable in the long run. Nowadays with video conferencing, even less people need to show up to a transatlantic business meeting.
Unlikely this makes financial sense.
Great it’s cool research though and should continue, if you want to bitch about wasted taxes go comment on military threads and comment there where billions are wasted on shit contracts that never materialize due to incompetent base mangers who can’t distinguish vapor ware proposals from real tech. Don’t bitch about scientific research that’s just fucking dumb.
A commercial passenger plane should not be the subject of government research.
The science behind minimizing a sonic boom is not just applicable to commercial planes, ffs stop trying to kill science and research fucking idoits.
Chill mate I’m not even from the US. There still is no practical use for this.
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Yeah but that was decades ago.
Without the boom, these planes can fly possibly more profitable routes, for example, drawing parallels is hard with such a time-distance