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.
asserted
he → have → camera
The X-59's owes its eccentric design to the problem of sonic booms.
asserted
X-59 → owe → 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.
asserted
jet → create → 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.
asserted
Nasa → work → background
On top of its bizarre appearance the X-59 boasts a remarkable lineage.
asserted
X-59 → boast → lineage
It's the latest in a series of experimental Nasa aircraft dating back to 1947 and the first plane to break the sound barrier, the Bell X-1.
asserted
It → date → barrier
Peter Coen, a 43-year Nasa veteran who manages the programme, explains the thinking behind 80 years of X-planes.
asserted
who → manage → planes
"Our approach is to pick small goals we aim to prove with flight data and we construct an airframe for that one task."
asserted
we → pick → task
The X-plane philosophy is to "minimise goals, the more goals you have the more expensive it gets."
asserted
it → minimise → goals
For the X-59 it's about suppressing sonic booms on a budget and nothing else.
asserted
it → suppress → budget
In the case of the X-1, flown through the sound barrier in 1947 by the legendary test pilot Chuck Yeager, Nasa knew a .50 calibre bullet travelled faster than the speed of sound.
asserted
bullet → fly → sound
So the stumpy little aircraft was shaped like a bullet with wings added.
asserted
wings → shape → bullet
A mere 20 years later the X-15 rocket plane, a cylinder with tiny wings dropped from a B-52 bomber, flew to 6.7 times the speed of sound (4,520 mph) and the edge of space, paving the way for heat-resistant materials vital to the Space Shuttle.
asserted
plane → drop → Shuttle
Nasa is flying the X-59 in conjunction with community surveys to assess what people think when a supersonic boom is bent by the planes stretched nose and hushed up.
asserted
boom → fly → nose
"We want to figure out what level of boom is acceptable to people on a regular basis," says Coen, who reckons his machine will sound "like a car door being closed across the street" when it flies past Mach 1, around 660mph at airline cruising altitude.
asserted
it → want → altitude
With its cockpit and ejector seat taken from a T-38 training jet, its landing gear from an F-16 fighter and engine courtesy of the F-18 this jigsaw of an aircraft was assembled by Lockheed Martin for Nasa.
asserted
jigsaw → take → Nasa
A camera feeding a screen in front of the pilot relies on instantaneous computer processing to get round the lack of forward vision.
asserted
camera → feed → vision
It first flew in 2025 and is now breaking the sound barrier over chosen US towns.
asserted
It → fly → towns
But is there still a place for X-plane projects in a world where relatively cheap drones are being rapidly developed - not least in Ukraine's war against Russia.
asserted
drones → develop → Russia
Even Nasa considered an uncrewed X-59.
asserted
Nasa → consider → X-59
Removing the pilot would have added the cost and complication of certifying a robot jet to fly fast over urban areas.
asserted
Removing → remove → areas
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.
asserted
which → have → cockpit
The X-48, a scaled down model of an airliner that blends wing and fuselage to create a single lifting body, flew in 2007.
asserted
that → scale → 2007
Small was beautiful for the tiny X-48 with its 20ft wingspan as this kept the programme within budget.
"
asserted
this → keep → budget
It's likely that future X-planes will be uncrewed," says Coen, before adding the vital caveats "unless the technology we're researching relates to piloting or if crewing it is more cost-effective".
asserted
crewing → uncrewe → it
Guy Gratton, professor of Aircraft Test and Evaluation at Cranfield University, gets frustrated at the suggestion crewed test planes have had their day.
asserted
planes → frustrate → day
"There's a belief in certain quarters that drones can do everything.
asserted
drones → be → everything
In Ukraine they've done amazing things with drones, but if you want to carry people you can't take short-cuts."
asserted
you → do → cuts
Gratton has tested light aircraft and stresses the importance of a human in the loop.
asserted
Gratton → test → loop
"You lose a huge amount without pilots, you miss lessons a pilot would identify, plus it can take four times as many people on the ground to test a drone."
asserted
it → lose → drone
Staff monitoring signals from a drone are an indirect cost that keeps some piloted X-planes relatively affordable.
asserted
that → monitor → planes
The UK has flown its own technology testbeds and Chris Yeo was in the pilot's seat of one.
asserted
Yeo → fly → one
The Experimental Aircraft Programme (EAP) flew from Lancashire in 1986 and tried out core systems for the Typhoon fighter.
asserted
Programme → fly → fighter
Yeo acknowledges the EAP's shared heritage with X-planes.
asserted
Yeo → acknowledge → planes
"They all research some facet of flight, and demonstrate the design is working correctly.
asserted
design → research → flight
A lot of people say they can do something, but you only know it works when the design has been tested and certified.
asserted
design → say → something
Forty years on from Yeo's EAP flights a new UK technology demonstrator is taking shape.
asserted
demonstrator → take → shape
It is, says Tony Godbold who runs the project for BAE Systems, "the X-plane of our generation"
asserted
who → say → generation
This BAE Systems initiative pulls together 100 UK suppliers including Rolls-Royce to test out ideas that might make it into the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), a fighter due to fly in the 2030s.
uncertain
that → pull → 2030s
The technology demonstrator will borrow engines from the existing Typhoon and fly sometime in 2028.
asserted
demonstrator → borrow → 2028
…and 6 more, not listed.
The Aporia
