NASA Plans Supersonic Research Flight Series in Texas

NASA plans to launch a flight campaign in Galveston, Texas, to explore approaches for the agency to gather community response data as part of its Commercial Supersonic Technology Project.

The agency said Thursday it will kick off a series of research flights in November from the Ellington airport and use an F/A-18 aircraft to test supersonic dive maneuvers.

The flights seek to produce sound signatures similar to that of NASA’s future X-plane

Lockheed Martin was awarded a potential $247.5 million contract to help the agency design, build and test a Low Boom Flight Demonstration aircraft.

NASA aims to fly the LBFD aircraft beginning in mid-2020 and provide data to help U.S. and international regulators craft sound-based rules for supersonic flight.