X-planes: Are they needed in the new era of drones?
Where do America's X-plane projects fit in an era of cheap drones?
There's a weird and wonderful jet flying over the US. It has the nose of anteater, parts cannibalised from other planes and a cockpit so far back the pilot depends on a camera to see where he's going.
The X-59's owes its eccentric design to the problem of sonic booms. The shockwave created by a jet breaking the sound barrier restricted Concorde to flights over the sea and barred it from lucrative routes across the US.
Now Nasa is working around that problem using the X-59's elongated snout to flatten supersonic booms into tolerable bumps in the background.
Plus the X-59 had to be big enough to resemble an airliner punching through the sound barrier, which in turn allowed space for a cockpit.