XPlane

With the usual ballyhoo, NASA and Lockheed Martin have rolled out the X-59 supersonic aircraft today. In a ceremony at the famous Skunk Works in Palmdale, California, the experimental plane was introduced to the public before a party of dignitaries.The 35-minute ceremony was long on congratulations and speeches, but very short on any new information about the technology or timeline of the X-plane. However, it was the first time the public has had a chance to see the X-59 up close and in its final form.Speaking at the…

X-planes are a class of experimental aircraft designed to test and demonstrate new innovations in flight—some were created for NASA, others for DARPA or the U.S. military. The first X-plane, X-1, was flown by Chuck Yeager in the 1940s and was the first craft to fly faster than the speed of sound. Over the decades,…Read more... X-planes are a class of experimental aircraft designed to test and demonstrate new innovations in flight—some were created for NASA, others for DARPA or the U.S. military. The first X-plane, X-1,…

DARPA has announced the four companies that will compete for the contract to design, build and test an X-Plane demonstrator capable of high-speed cruise, hover and VTOL for its Speed and Runway Independent Technologies (SPRINT) project. The SPRINT X-Plane will be "a proof-of-concept technology demonstrator and its flight test program seeks to validate enabling technologies and integrated concepts that can be scaled to different size military aircraft." Specific technical requirements for the demonstrator, according to Top…

The Orion Artemis II Optical Communications System (O2O), a laser communications system for NASA’s Artemis II mission, has been delivered to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for integration with the Orion spacecraft. This mission will see astronauts fly around the moon for the first time since the Apollo missions, utilizing advanced technologies such as O2O. Credit: NASAEquipping the space station to produce more power …<span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt"…

DARPA has awarded Aurora Flight Sciences a phase 2 contract for its CRANE (Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors) program, following wind tunnel testing of a small-scale X-plane that uses compressed air bursts instead of control surfaces.Elevators, ailerons, rudders, flaps, flaperons, stabilators ... From the Wright Brothers' Flyer to the F-35, nearly every airplane ever built has used moving control surfaces to subtly change its shape during flight, altering the aerodynamic pressures and forces to adjust…

The next commercial crew test mission to the space station …Outlining the agency’s objectives for deep space exploration ….And covering the total lunar eclipse on Earth and from space … a few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at <span class="glossaryLink" aria-describedby="tt" data-cmtooltip="<div class=glossaryItemTitle>NASA</div><div class=glossaryItemBody>Established in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the…