NASA hires Lockheed Martin to build a quiet, supersonic jet

After receiving the finished aircraft sometime in 2021, NASA will conduct a series of test flights to ensure the technology is working as intended.

Lockheed Martin Corp. won a $247.5 million NASA contract to build a quieter supersonic jet, a step toward developing planes that can whisk passengers around the globe much more quickly.

The X-plane is meant to create a "gentle thump" during flight, no louder than closing a auto door, while cruising at about 940 miles per hour at 55,000 feet, according to NASA, The Times reported.

Additionally, NASA expects the new aircraft to create a sound of less than half the noise level - or more akin to the sound of a closing auto door.

NASA and Lockheed Martin have joined forces in a bid to bring commercial supersonic air travel back to our skies.

NASA says the main factor in making supersonic passenger flight a reality is reducing sonic booms to a level that people on the ground "will hardly notice them, if they hear them at all".

In this Low-Boom Flight Demonstration contract, Lockheed Martin is obliged to completing the design and fabrication of an experimental aircraft, known as an X-plane.

For those who still hanker after the supersonic air travel offered by Concorde, some exciting news from NASA. The contract is the culmination of a decade of collaboration, and takes forward a contract awarded in 2016 for preliminary design of the aircraft.

The agency expects to have gathered enough data to properly recommend overland supersonic regulations to the FAA by 2023 or 2024, John Carter, manager of NASA's low-boom flight demonstration project at the Armstrong Flight Research Center, said in an interview past year. The X plane has duck wings in front of its cockpit and two delta wings at a very sharp angle.

"Our long tradition of solving the technical barriers of supersonic flight to benefit everyone continues", Shin added.

After receiving the plane from Lockheed Martin in late 2021, NASA plans to conduct a series of flights over certain USA cities to get community feedback on the sound, according to The Times.

We're honored to continue our partnership with NASA to enable a new generation of supersonic travel. A big problem with supersonic flight was that the sonic boom made it too loud to fly over populated areas.

Listen closely: A quiet, supersonic jet capable of blasting through the sound barrier without emitting a sonic boom could pass over your home as soon as 2022. Lockheed in December also agreed to help Aerion build its supersonic jet. The sound it generates, NASA says, should be at 75 perceived-level decibels, or "about as loud as a auto door closing".