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NASA hires Lockheed Martin to build supersonic plane
What has happened?
NASA has inked a deal with Lockheed Martin to develop a supersonic “X-plane” that could break the sound barrier without a sonic boom.
Objective
The goal is to enable quieter supersonic flight and create new commercial cargo and passenger markets in faster-than-sound air travel
Test Flight by 2021
The $247.5 million contract allows for the design, building and testing of a plane that would make its first test flight in 2021
Sound level upto 75db only
The experimental plane “will cruise at 55,000 feet at a speed of about 1,513 kmph and create a sound about as loud as a car door closing, 75 Perceived Level decibel (PLdB), instead of a sonic boom
Flight in mid-2022
As early as mid-2022, NASA plans to fly the X-plane over certain, as yet to be determined, U.S. cities to collect data and gather community responses.
