HAMPTON, Va. (WVEC) -- NASA hopes to usher in new technology.
They’re working to make a supersonic flight over land possible. NASA announced they're awarding a contract to Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company to finish the design and build a supersonic, manned, X-plane, the Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator.
They unveiled the new, experimental aircraft Tuesday.
The chief engineer at NASA Langley in Hampton, Jay Brandon, said when airplanes fly at a supersonic speed they make sonic booms.
Brandon says because of the loud noise supersonic aircraft are been barred from flying across the land.
The purpose of the X-plane is to develop an aircraft that reduces a sonic boom to a gentle thump.
“A lot of dreaming goes into developing something like this,” Brandon said. “We think we can shape the plane to quiet the boom so it's not a problem for flying over people and land.”
The X-plane serves two purposes.
One, to reduce the sonic boom noise and the other, NASA plans to take the aircraft, fly it over different communities and get information from people in those communities to hopefully one day allow supersonic flight over land.
They will deliver that dataset to U.S. and international regulators in hopes that new, sound-based rules regarding supersonic flight over land can be written and adopted, which would open the doors to new commercial cargo and passenger markets to provide faster-than-sound air travel.
“It's developing technology that will hopefully impact everyone's lives in a positive way,” Brandon said.
The X-plane will fly at 55,000 feet at about 940 mph.
The plan is to start flight tests by 2021 to prove the quiet supersonic technology works. NASA also hopes to reduce the time it takes to travel.
For more about the Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator, click here.
► Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13News Now App.