NASA has selected Lockheed Martin to build an X-plane to demonstrate that sonic booms can be reduced to a noise level low enough to enable the ban on civil supersonic flight over land to be lifted. The Low Boom Flight Demonstrator is scheduled to fly in 2021 and will be used to gather community-response data to enable FAA and ICAO to develop sound-based rules for supersonic flight over land. Lockheed’s Skunk Works had produced a preliminary design for the demonstrator under a ...
