NASA’s new flying projects aim for greater speed and better maneuvering capabilities. Not only for military purposes but also for future commercial aircraft, some of which will be supersonic and others capable of operating from very short runways
The US Space Agency (Nasa) has revealed some details of its next experimental aircraft called X-70 Fractal. The images are still conceptual and partial, however they anticipate what the configuration of the aircraft will be once completed. NASA released a brief statement announcing the new project, describing it as a highly maneuverable experimental platform equipped with rapidly reconfigurable flight control technology. It means that this project allows NASA to replace components, both external and internal, in real time.
According to the Agency, this modular architecture will allow the maneuverability of aircraft to be explored in ways never before demonstrated in manned flight. Maneuverability is a challenge parallel to that of speed, for which the Agency is developing the X-59, or the “silent” supersonic one. The widespread images, generated with an artificial intelligence application, show a short fuselage and two vertical and divergent fins that can be glimpsed from a smoke screen. Although it is difficult to deduce the final appearance of the X-70 from the image, the fins resemble those of the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor and predecessor models, such as the F-18 Hornet, which served in the US Navy.
NASA’s presentation
Jared Isaacmannumber one of the Agency, declared: «The X-70 Fractal offers NASA a high-performance manned platform, ideal for testing cutting-edge technologies related to aircraft control and maneuverability in flight. The X-70 will fly within two years and it will be a new beginning for aviation. This is why people come to work at NASA: to build, to learn and, above all, to fly.”
In fact, the X-59 and the
If today we have computerized controls, high-efficiency aerodynamics and advanced composite materials, much derives from what was done first by NACA and then by NASA between 1946 and 1985. Regarding the capabilities of the This is because the intent is to build a vehicle that demonstrates its handling qualities and not something competitive in terms of common performance.
In fact, the payload will be only 900 kilograms including the pilot and the maximum take-off weight 4,600 kilograms (equivalent to the 10,000 pound limit), a value similar to that of the Model 437 Vanguard experimental aircraft, developed by Scaled Composites and Northrop Grumman, created for similar purposes.
The characteristics of the aircraft of the future
But if it is with the X-70 that they are looking for greater maneuverability, it is instead with the X-59 that the agency has been flying for over a year. This is characterized by a particular geometry with a very long nose and a cockpit without a front windshield, with the pilot operating using a screen on which augmented reality is represented which integrates the images coming from various sensors and a forward-facing camera. Something very similar to what we have seen in recent decades described by science fiction, but at the same time a solution that increases robustness and therefore safety against impacts with birds or debris.
The goal of the X-59 during supersonic flight is to overcome the sound barrier (Mach 1) without producing the thunderous sonic booms that usually accompany flight at supersonic speeds. And thus reopen the way to the construction and use of civil supersonic airplanes after the retirement of Concorde.
On the contrary, low-speed maneuverability, if on a military level it allows us to win aerial battles and return to the objective in a short time, in the civil field it means building even large airplanes that can operate from shorter runways and therefore from a greater number of airports.
