Page 2 - Aerotech News and Review, December 3, 2021

NASA’s X-59 QueSST stands on its own

Reader’s

Services

How to contact
Aerotech News and Review
• E-Mail: editor@aerotechnews.com
• Phone: (661) 945-5634
• Fax: (661) 723-7757
• Website: www.aerotechnews.com

Advertising
Corporate Headquarters:
(877) 247-9288
Email: sbueltel@aerotechnews.com

Subscriber Services
Subscriptions to Aerotech News
and Review are $59 for six
months or $89 for one year. For
more information, contact the
subscription department at:
(661) 945-5634

Story ideas, letters, editorials
Please send all letters and editorials to
Stuart A. Ibberson, editor,
at editor@aerotechnews.com.

Web Site
Lockheed Martin photographs Access the Aerotech News web
The X-59 is supported by ground supports in site at www.aerotechnews.com
preparation for installation of the landing gear Submissions for upcoming events, air
and other hardware required for structural shows and museums
testing. Most of the preparation for the X-59’s should be emailed to
construction involved more than a decade’s editor@aerotechnews.com.
worth of research on quiet supersonic
technology. For questions concerning the web site,
contact the webmaster at
by Tiernan Doyle manager for technology. “It’s the preparation as part of a mission to collect data on quiet su- webmaster@aerotechnews.com.
NASA Armstrong that’s more time consuming.” personic flight and public reactions to super-
Most of the preparation for the X-59’s con- sonic “thumps.” The plane is shaped in a way
The X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology struction involved more than a decade’s worth of that reduces a sonic boom typically associated Where you can get
(QueSST) team of NASA and Lockheed Martin research on quiet supersonic technology. NASA’s with supersonic aircraft to a quiet sonic thump Aerotech News and Review
have recently removed the aircraft from its jig quiet supersonic mission plans to bring all of the to people on the ground. The mission’s findings For information on
system, or external supports. science and technology developed during those will be sent to regulators to help create new rules Aerotech distribution, call
The next step is proving the research aircraft is years into the spotlight. regarding speed limitations on supersonic flight (661) 945-5634 or visit
structurally sound and ready for final assembly. For Richwine, seeing the construction of the over land. www.aerotechnews.com/distribution.
The team has made significant progress on the aircraft feels personal.
X-59 QueSST assembly. In late October, they “I have been working on supersonics technol- Now that the X-59 is free from the jig, it will
pulled the aircraft away from the jig support ogy, and the predecessor to the concept for the move on to the final assembly phase, including
system. The jig, which is similar to scaffolding, past 15 years,” Richwine said. “I have more of the first “power-on” of the aircraft to test its in- Aerotech News and Review is published
helped ensure all of the aircraft’s hardware was an emotional attachment because I have put so ternal systems. Once that is complete, the X-59 every other Friday, serving the
placed together correctly throughout the manu- many years into this mission.” will be shipped to Lockheed Martin’s facilities in aerospace and defense industry of
facturing process. Initial construction of NASA’s X-59 began in Fort Worth, Texas, where structural tests will be Southern California, Nevada and
“It’s pretty simple to move the jig away,” said 2018 at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facil- conducted. The first flight of the X-59 is planned Arizona. News and ad copy deadline
is noon on the Tuesday prior to
David Richwine, NASA’s X-59 deputy project ity in Palmdale, Calif. The X-59 will be flown for 2022. publication. The publisher assumes no
responsibility for error in ads other
AIRPORT, from 1 than space used. Your comments are
region of North Los Angeles and Southeastern Kern counties has been a 17,000-acre desert site. welcomed and encouraged. Write to
story of feast and famine for decades. Years later, Los Angeles World Airways and the City of Palmdale, the address below.
Gen. William J. Fox County Airfield in Lancaster had scheduled daily in cooperation with the Air Force, opened a Palmdale Regional Airport
airline service as far back as the 1950s, but nothing since the 1980s. terminal, which saw a succession of feeder airline tenants, usually with
Fox Field is the only one remaining of five Los Angeles County-owned subsidies and operating with various degrees of success, depending on • Publisher ....................Paul Kinison
airports to have been certified by the Federal Aviation Administration for shifts in the economy and having enough flights to the right destinations • Business Manager ....... Lisa Kinison
providing scheduled airline service. for passengers. Commercial carriers recruited to Palmdale Regional in- • Editor .................... Stuart Ibberson
The Los Angeles County Airports Commission, which advises the • National Advertising
Board of Supervisors, was scheduled for a public ZOOM meeting at 10 cluded America West, American Eagle, Horizon, Skywest and United Manager .....................Paul Kinison
a.m., Nov. 24 to continue discussion on creating a marketing plan for the Express, the last to depart.
airports, including Fox. Fifth District Supervisor Kathryn Barger was The passenger service market area for the new Palmdale airport is the
reportedly aware of the Palmdale initiative. familiar High Desert triangle, encompassing Ridgecrest/China Lake on Aerotech News and Review
In the 1960s, Palmdale was proclaimed by the Los Angeles Department the north, I-5 at Gorman on the west, and the San Bernardino County Line e-mail: editor@aerotechnews.com
of Airports as the future home of what was to be Palmdale International on the east. Within the triangle are Mojave, Rosamond, Edwards AFB,
Airport, a plan that sold real estate, but not a single airline ticket on the Lancaster, Palmdale, Quartz Hill and rural and foothill communities. Visit our web site at
www.aerotechnews.com

Aerotech News and Review
2 www.aerotechnews.com ........ facebook.com/aerotechnewsandreview December 3, 2021