NASA’s X-59 successfully completed a test series in which the airplane was put through its paces in flight without ever leaving the ground.
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft is seen during its “aluminum bird” systems testing at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California. The test verified how the aircraft’s hardware and software work together, responding to pilot inputs and handling injected system failures.
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft successfully completed a critical series of tests in which the airplane was put through its paces for cruising high above the California desert – all without ever leaving the ground. “The idea behind these tests is to command the airplane’s subsystems and flight computer to function as if it is flying,” said Yohan Lin, the X-59’s lead avionics engineer at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The goal of ground-based simulation testing was to make sure the hardware and software that will allow the X-59 to fly safely are properly working together and able to handle any unexpected problems. Any new aircraft is a combination of systems, and identifying the little adjustments required to optimize performance is an important step in a disciplined approach toward flight. “We thought we might find a few things during the tests that would prompt us to go back and tweak them to work better, especially with some of the software, and that’s what we wound up experiencing. So, these tests were very helpful,” Lin said. Completing the tests marks another milestone off the checklist of things to do before the X-59 makes its first flight this year, continuing NASA’s Quesst mission to help enable commercial supersonic air travel over land.During the testing, engineers from NASA and contractor Lockheed Martin turned on most of the X-59’s systems, leaving the engine off. For example, if the pilot moved the control stick a certain way, the flight computer moved the aircraft’s rudder or other control surfaces, just as it would in flight. At the same time, the airplane was electronically connected to a ground computer that sends simulated signals – which the X-59 interpreted as real – such as changes in altitude, speed, temperature, or the health of various systems.“These were simple maneuvers, nothing too crazy,” Lin said. “We would then inject failures into the airplane to see how it would respond. Would the system compensate for the failure? Was the pilot able to recover?” Unlike in typical astronaut training simulations, where flight crews do not know what scenarios they might encounter, the X-59 pilots mostly knew what the aircraft would experience during every test and even helped plan them to better focus on the aircraft systems’ response. NASA test pilot James Less sits in the cockpit of the X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft as he participates in a series of “aluminum bird” systems tests at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California.In aircraft development, this work is known as “iron bird” testing, named for a simple metal frame on which representations of the aircraft’s subsystems are installed, connected, and checked out. Building such a testbed is a common practice for development programs in which many aircraft will be manufactured. But since the X-59 is a one-of-a-kind airplane, officials decided it was better and less expensive to use the aircraft itself. As a result, engineers dubbed this series of exercises “aluminum bird” testing, since that’s the metal the X-59 is mostly made of. So, instead of testing an “iron bird” with copies of an aircraft’s systems on a non-descript frame, the “aluminum bird” used the actual aircraft and its systems, which in turn meant the test results gave everyone higher confidence in the design, “It’s a perfect example of the old tried and true adage in aviation that says ‘Test what you fly. Fly what you test,’” Lin said.With aluminum bird testing in the rearview mirror, the next milestone on the X-59’s path to first flight is take the airplane out on the taxiways at the airport adjacent to Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, where the X-59 was built. First flight would follow those taxi tests. Already in the X-59’s logbook since the fully assembled and painted airplane made its public debut in January 2024:Firing up the GE Aerospace jet engine for the first time after installation into the X-59, including a series of tests of Checking the wiring that ties together the X-59’s flight computer, electronic systems, and other hardware to be sure there wereWatch this video about the X-59 aluminum bird testing. It only takes a minute. Well, 59 seconds to be precise.Jim Banke is a veteran aviation and aerospace communicator with more than 40 years of experience as a writer, producer, consultant, and project manager based at Cape Canaveral, Florida. He is part of NASA Aeronautics' Strategic Communications Team and is Managing Editor for the Aeronautics topic on the NASA website.
Aeronautics Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate Ames Research Center Armstrong Flight Research Center Commercial Supersonic Technology Glenn Research Center Integrated Aviation Systems Program Langley Research Center Low Boom Flight Demonstrator Quesst (X-59) Quesst: The Vehicle Supersonic Flight
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
NASA Kennedy Breathes Life into Moon Soil TestingAs NASA works to establish a long-term presence on the Moon, researchers have reached a breakthrough by extracting oxygen at a commercial scale from simulated
Read more »
Local Tucsonans encourage testing on National Hepatitis Testing DayBri Pacelli is KGUN 9's Eastside reporter. Send your story ideas to Bri at bri.pacellikgun9.com.
Read more »
A Defining Era: NASA Stennis and Space Shuttle Main Engine TestingThe numbers are astonishing – 34 years of testing space shuttle main engines at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi (a defining era), 3,244 individual tests, more than 820,000 seconds (totaling more than nine days) of cumulative hot fire.
Read more »
Diabetes Screening or Testing: Is Point-of-Care A1c Testing Ready for Prime Time?Clinicians encourage patients to consider the benefits and risks of point-of-care A1c screening.
Read more »
NASA Kennedy Digs Latest Robot TestNASA’s RASSOR (Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot) undergoes testing to extract simulated regolith, or the loose, fragmental material on the
Read more »
Here are the new U.S. lightning capitals based on 2024 dataThe latest annual lightning report reveals the latest lightning capitals across the U.S.
Read more »