NASA’s X-59 Moves Toward First Flight at Speed of Safety

While the silent supersonic research planes of NASA in its kind approach the first flight, his team mapped at each stage of the taxi and takeoff at cruise and landing – and their decision -making is guided by security.

The first flight will be a low -altitude loop at around 240 MPH to check the integration of the system, cutting a flight test phase focused on the verification of the navigability and safety of the aircraft. During subsequent test flights, the X-59 will go higher and faster, ultimately exceeding the speed of sound. The plane is designed to fly Supersonic while generating a thud rather than a strong sound boom.

To help guarantee that the first flight – and each flight after that – will start and end safely, engineers have diaper protection on the plane.

The X -59 flight test instrumentation system (FTIS) is one of its main recording guards, the collection and transmission of audio, video, on -board sensors and plane information – all which NASA will follow through the lifespan of the plane.

“We record 60 different data flows with more than 20,000 parameters on board,” said Shedrick Bessent, NASA X-59 instrumentation engineer. “Before even taking off, it is reassuring to know that the system has already experienced more than 200 days of work.”

Thanks to ground tests and system assessments, the system has already generated more than 8,000 files over 237 days of recording. This record provides a detailed story that helps engineers check the preparation of the plane for the flight.

“There are so many new technologies on this plane, and if a system like Ftis can offer a little relief by showing us what works – with reliability and consistency – which reduces stress and uncertainty,” said Bessent. “I think it helps the project as much as it helps our team.”

The plane also uses a digital fly system that will maintain the stable plane and limit dangerous maneuvers. Developed for the first time in the 1970s at the Armstrong Flight Research Center in NASA in Edwards, California, the digital fly-by-waire replaced the way the planes were piloted, moving away from traditional cables and pulleys in control of computerized flight and actuator.

On the X -59, the pilot’s inputs – such as the movement of the stick or the accelerator – are translated into electronic signals and decoded by a computer. These signals are then sent through fiber optic wires to the areas of the plane, such as its wings and tail.

In addition, the plane uses several computers that retreat and maintain the operation of the system. If one fails, another takes over. The same goes for electrical and hydraulic systems, which also have independent backup systems to ensure that the plane can fly safely.

The batteries on board save the hydraulic and electric systems of the X-59, with thermal batteries causing the electric pump which supplies the hydraulics. The engine backup is an emergency restart system that uses hydrazine, a highly reactive liquid fuel. In the unlikely case of energy loss, the hydrazine system restarts the engine in flight. The system would help restore power so that the pilot can stabilize or recover the plane.

Behind each of these systems is a team of engineers, technicians, safety and quality insurance experts and others. The team includes a team leader responsible for the plane maintenance and ensuring that the plane is ready for the flight.

“I try to always climb and shake the hand of the crew chief,” said Nils Larson, test pilot at the head of NASA X-59. “Because it’s not your plane – it’s team leader’s plane – and they trust you.

Larson, which should serve as a pilot for the first flight, can only borrow the plane from the X -59 crew leaders – Matt Arnold of the entrepreneur X -59 Lockheed Martin and Juan Salazar of NASA – but many plane security systems were designed specifically to protect the flight driver.

The X -59 survival system is designed to provide oxygen through the pilot mask in order to compensate for the decrease in atmospheric pressure at the 55,000 feet aircraft cruise – altitudes more than twice higher than that of a typical airliner. In order to resist a high altitude flight, Larson will also wear a counter-impression garment, or in G-Suit, similar to what the hunting pilots wear.

In the unlikely case of which it is necessary, the X-59 also has an ejection seat and a canopy adapted to an American coach Air Force T-38, which is equipped with a first aid kit, a radio and water. Due to the design, construction and test rigor placed in the X-59, the ejection seat is a safety measure.

All these systems form a security network, adding confidence in the pilot and engineers as the next step – first flight.

“There is a lot of confidence that will steal something new,” said Larson. “You trust the engineers, the maintainers, the designers – all those who touched the plane. And if I am not comfortable, I do not go home. But if they trust the plane, and they trust me, then I am absolutely.”