15 - Guest lectures

BREAKING THE SOUND BARRIER: ACHIEVING QUIET SUPERSONIC FLIGHT OVER LAND

P. Coen, United States

The time saving benefits of supersonic civil aviation remain one of the great unfulfilled promises of the modern air transportation system. As part of its charter to develop technology that will transform the future of air transportation, NASA participates with the international community to develop solutions that will make supersonic air travel sustainable and available to a broad segment of the population. NASA is leading efforts to overcome one of the most challenging barriers to this vision: supersonic overland flight restrictions put in place to protect the public from exposure to unacceptably loud sonic boom noise. Inspired by a breakthrough in the understanding of airframe design techniques that can reduce the sonic boom to a soft thump, NASA has embarked on the Quesst mission. Quesst will use the X-59 research aircraft as the centerpiece of a multi-year project to collect data on how populations respond to the sonic thump. Quest will provide this data to Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection of the International Civil Aviation Organization to support their efforts to define a standard for acceptable sound levels from supersonic flight. The presentation will review the history of the development of the quiet supersonic design methodology, provide details of the X-59 aircraft and describe the elements of the Quesst mission. Opportunities for international collaboration related to the mission will be presented

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