Tune in to NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center Facebook page at 1:00pm EST (10:00am PDT) to see the agency perform a supersonic flight demonstration. Essentially, while this X-plane is expected to fly at supersonic speed, the shock waves it creates when flying faster than the speed of sound generate a sonic boom so quiet that it'll be hardly noticed by the public. Previous versions of the X-plane have traveled at these speeds nearly 70 years ago, but the resulting sonic boom was loud and disruptive to folks on the ground. This latest technology is supposed to minimize this impact by toning down the sonic boom.
Testing out this technology is one of the steps in bringing supersonic flight back to the general traveling public. Each version of NASA's X-plane is different — what it looks like, how it's operated and where it'll be flown. If you're around (or you can tune in to the Facebook page at a later time), this is a neat opportunity to experience the rest in realtime — be sure to check it out here.
