Virgin Atlantic Airbus A350 – Robert Smith/MI News/NurPhoto /Getty Extremely strong winds in the upper Atlantic pushed commercial flights to near record speeds over the weekend; some passenger planes recorded ground speeds in excess of 800 miles per hour. Eastbound planes, including a Virgin Atlantic flight from Washington DC to London, landed much earlier than… Read More »
Before NASA’s new X-59 supersonic jet could break the sound barrier, scientists needed to record equivalent sonic booms to use as reference. Test pilots at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center took to the skies high in the Southern California desert near the U.S. Air Force’s Edwards Air Force Base to produce the “thumps” the X-59… Read More »
X-59 is finally here. NASA’s newest X-plane, the X-59, is designed to break the sound barrier without the violent sonic booms that usually occur when planes go supersonic. Instead, Quesst will produce a much quieter “thump,” similar to the sound of a car door slamming heard from inside. If successful, the jet has the potential… Read More »