“Developing, building and flight testing a quiet
supersonic X-plane is the next logical step in our path
to enabling the industry's decision to open supersonic
travel for the flying public," said Jaiwon Shin,
associate administrator for NASA’s Aeronautics Research
Mission. Lockheed
Martin
will receive about $20 million over 17 months for QueSST
preliminary design work. The Lockheed Martin
team includes subcontractors GE Aviation of Cincinnati
and Tri Models Inc. of Huntington Beach, California.
The company will develop baseline aircraft requirements
and a preliminary aircraft design, with specifications,
and provide supporting documentation for concept
formulation and planning. This documentation would be
used to prepare for the detailed design, building and
testing of the QueSST jet. Performance of this
preliminary design also must undergo analytical and wind
tunnel validation.
In
addition to design and building, this Low Boom Flight
Demonstration (LBFD) phase of the project also will
include validation of community response to the new,
quieter supersonic design. The detailed design and
building of the QueSST aircraft, conducted under the
NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate's
Integrated Aviation Systems Program, will fall under a
future contract competition.
NASA’s 10-year New Aviation Horizons initiative has the
ambitious goals of reducing fuel use, emissions and
noise through innovations in aircraft design that
departs from the conventional tube-and-wing aircraft
shape. The New Aviation Horizons X-planes
will typically be about half-scale of a production
aircraft and likely are to be piloted. Design-and-build
will take several years with aircraft starting their
flight campaign around 2020, depending on funding.
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