Supersonic aircraft are slender, to minimize wave drag, but design for low sonic boom takes slenderness to a new extreme. NASA's X-59 QueSST low-boom flight demonstrator has a wingspan of just 29.5 ft. but is 96.7 ft. long. And half that length is the nose, which is carefully shaped to control the Shockwaves but completely blocks the pilot's forward visibility.The Concorde supersonic airliner overcame the problem with a droop nose that was articulated downward to improve visibility for taxi, takeoff and landing. But NASA wanted to avoid the weight and complexity of such a mechanism for the X-59 and future supersonic transports. Its solution is an electronic, forward-facing window called the External Vision System (XVS). Aviation Week & Space Technology was invited to NASA Langley Research Center in Virginia in August to see the XVS in action ahead of a formal flight evaluation by the project test pilots for the X-59, which is in final assembly at Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works in Palmdale, California. The NASA-developed XVS is being supplied to Lockheed as government-furnished equipment.
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