NASA Awards Lockheed Martin Skunk Works $247.5 Million Contract to Build Low-Boom Supersonic X-Plane
Why It MattersA successful low-boom demonstrator could reshape regulatory standards and open the path toward reviving commercial supersonic flight over land.
NASA has awarded Lockheed Martin Skunk Works a $247.5 million cost-plus contract to design, build, and flight test a Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator, a full-scale experimental X-plane aimed at advancing commercial supersonic air travel over land. The design builds on preliminary work completed under NASA's Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST) program, for which NASA awarded Lockheed Martin Skunk Works a separate contract in February 2016. The aircraft is engineered to produce a soft thump instead of a disruptive sonic boom, supporting NASA's effort to establish an acceptable commercial supersonic noise standard that could overturn current bans on supersonic flight over land.
The aircraft will be built at the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, with first flight targeted for 2021. Peter Iosifidis, Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator program manager for Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, said the company is honored to continue its partnership with NASA to enable a new generation of supersonic travel, applying the work completed under QueSST to the design, build, and flight test of the X-plane. Lockheed Martin Skunk Works and NASA have collaborated on supersonic aircraft development for more than 19 years.
