Lockheed X-59 first flight on 28 October from Palmdale, California
Posted by Xeelee1123@reddit | WeirdWings | View on Reddit | 74 comments
Posted by Xeelee1123@reddit | WeirdWings | View on Reddit | 74 comments
DonWop1@reddit
Can someone explain how the pilot is supposed to see? Especially on final approach and landing?
Shaun_Jones@reddit
The F-35 has technology that allows the pilot to see straight through the aircraft, so there’s probably something similar here.
murphsmodels@reddit
In some jets you have to watch for tail swing when turning, to make sure you don't hit anything. This thing has to watch for nose swing as well.
Anybody know why the nose gear is half a mile behind the actual nose?
One hard landing, and they'll have to change the nickname to "droop snoot".
Shaun_Jones@reddit
Most likely the nose contains sensor equipment and/or is too thin for the wheel well to fit.
Xeelee1123@reddit (OP)
Source: https://www.nasa.gov/mission/quesst/
Source: https://news.lockheedmartin.com/2025-10-28-X-59-Soars-A-New-Era-in-Supersonic-Flight-Begins?_gl=1*16zl2i4*_gcl_au*MTk5ODEyODgxMS4xNzYxNzE1Njcw
Away-Independence407@reddit
Does mean one day we may see the return of a concorde style aircraft or maybe a new tu-144 type ?
BigBlueBurd@reddit
The return of Concorde has been underway for a while. A company called Boom Technologies is working on a supersonic airliner. They've got a giant factory in Greensboro, North Carolina, and they're building their prototype. They're even developing a brand new engine in-house, because none of the Big Three were willing to help develop a new supersonic-capable medium-bypass turbofan.
ItselfSurprised05@reddit
Adding some detail about Boom, for people not familiar with them.
Their XB-1 demonstrator first flew in March 2024.
It first went supersonic in January of 2025. It was the first privately-developed aircraft ever to do so.
By the end of their test program in February 2025, the company said it had achieved its goal of supersonic flight without producing an audible sonic boom.
Obnoxious_Gamer@reddit
Fuckin amateurs
Away-Independence407@reddit
You realize boom technology hasnt bulit their full size full power verison yet right?
ItselfSurprised05@reddit
He's making a joke about their name.
Away-Independence407@reddit
I know
ItselfSurprised05@reddit
LOL
Marionettework@reddit
Does this mean Boom is actually further ahead than NASA?
ItselfSurprised05@reddit
This is not my field, and I only casually follow this stuff. But based on the pretty standard milestone of "first test flight", Boom is currently ahead by 19 months.
Besides being ahead, the Boom folks might also have a better concept.
The Wikipedia article for the Lockheed/NASA plane says that they estimate the X-59 "would create a 75 dB thump on ground, as loud as closing a car door..."
Whereas the XB-1 has actually gone supersonic "without generating an audible sonic boom that reached the ground".
BigBlueBurd@reddit
The Baby Boom wasn't the prototype, to be clear. It was just a testbed.
ItselfSurprised05@reddit
Yup. The article uses the word "demonstrator". Its intent was to show that they could suppress the sonic boom.
The demonstrator was a scaled down version of what the prototype will be. It was only 62 ft long and had a MTOW of only 13,500.
not1or2@reddit
I think that’s the idea. Unless the enviromentalists get involved.
KerPop42@reddit
Yeah who wants an ozone layer /s
Away-Independence407@reddit
i hope so
noneckjoe123@reddit
After only NINE years since design Began…..awriiiiiiiight…….
RhynoD@reddit
🎵Long, long jeeeeeet🎵
GnarlyNarwhalNoms@reddit
I'm guessing that pointyboi here is the successor to this aircraft project.
NationalPumpkin8966@reddit
State of the art airliners already allow landing in near zero visibility. Cameras would be a useful/likely/obvious safety layer, but you can already land many existing aircraft without looking outside.
The F-35 also demonstrates augmented vision to 'see through' the non transparent portions of the airframe from the pilots perspective.
I would say the complex droop nose will be a thing of the past.
Spiritual_Fox_8393@reddit
Charles Lindbergh could empathize with this pilot
commanche_00@reddit
Mmmmmmmm pointy
CAMSTONEFOX@reddit
Oh, they got the flying lawn dart up finally? About darned time…
yaxgto@reddit
Long long maaaaaan
Calm-Ad3031@reddit
Finally, we have a plane that can blast away Chinese balloons by ramming.
jokerzwild00@reddit
Looks straight out of the 60s to me. Something from that wild era of try anything and see if it works. If this was postes as "XF-113 Needlenose circa 1962" I wouldn't have given it a second thought before thinking wow that's cool and went to the comments for a wiki page. Maybe it's the Nasa logo giving it that effect for me.
propsie@reddit
Yeah, it has real X-3 vibes.
Hopefully it's a better aeroplane than the X-3.
Quiet-Temporary-6666@reddit
Pointy.
GnarlyNarwhalNoms@reddit
"How long does the nose need to be, exactly?"
"Just keep going and I'll say when."
ImNotAlpharius@reddit
"How much more pointy should the nose be?"
"Yes."
Pyrhan@reddit
Aladeen approves!
NF-104@reddit
Sure looks like repurposed A-7/F-8 main landing gear.
DisregardLogan@reddit
I think it actually has various parts of different aircraft in it
GnarlyNarwhalNoms@reddit
It's way too late in life for me to change careers, but I honestly cannot think of a cooler job than figuring out how to stick different airplane parts together and making it fly.
slups@reddit
I think the canopy is an aft canopy off a T-38
Aratheon01@reddit
That's basically the Skunkworks MO, at least historically. Pull as much off the shelf (so to speak) as possible for a one-off demonstrater like this to keep costs down. Why waste time and money designing a part from the ground up, when you can find an existing part that is very close to what you need and then modify it a bit?
CKinWoodstock@reddit
Grumman did the same thing with the X-29; probably more than half the plane came from the spare parts bin.
McFlyParadox@reddit
On that note, I'm surprised by how far "back" the front landing gear is. There must be nothing but empty space in that nose.
NSYK@reddit
Guess it’s off an F-16
Melech333@reddit
It does kind of look like someone started with an F-16, then stretched out the Play-Doh to make it real long, before swapping out a bunch of the Lego pieces to play with the wing shapes some more.
I'm going back to sleep now.
mdang104@reddit
I saw the F-16 landing gears right away. The tail looks Phantom-ish 🤔
10July1940@reddit
Conquest X-30
Yeetopian@reddit
I did not realise how pointy it is
Archididelphis@reddit
For anyone who thought the Stiletto was too remotely sane.
mymar101@reddit
This looks more like those futurist impressions of what rockets will look like in the future from the 1930s-40s than a modern jet.
Vecna_Is_My_Co-Pilot@reddit
The Douglas X-3 Stiletto rides again!
AvalancheZ250@reddit
Not many characteristics truly deserve the adjective "comically", despite it being used in many cases to make light of things, but in this case for the nose it actually seems appropriate.
unohoo09@reddit
SST the loooooooong way
KeneticKups@reddit
why the long face?
Expert-Finding2633@reddit
It's beautiful
KommandantDex@reddit
Why the long face
MilmoWK@reddit
I always imagine the conceptualizing of that jet is a room full of brilliant engineers spending a large amount of time and money researching, modeling, and testing just to end up with “make it really pointy”
LefsaMadMuppet@reddit
The X-59 Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaardvark II
BetterAfter2@reddit
Hey there. Pinocchio
Tema4@reddit
В чём смысл такого длинного носа?
wegl88@reddit
Is there a fugly aircraft sub?
Nighthawk-FPV@reddit
Your profile is close enough
CapitanianExtinction@reddit
You'll put yer eye out, kid!
Top-Yogurt-3205@reddit
Thanks for an early-morning laugh!
(The author of Christmas Story, Jean Shepherd, was an avid pilot.)
Lillienpud@reddit
Face only a mother could love
Aggravating-Trip-546@reddit
Pointy snout.
Ill_Soft_4299@reddit
gAiJiN WheN....
Ziggarot@reddit
Oh shit, they’re leaking.
PM_ME_YER_MUDFLAPS@reddit
Why am I hearing Afroman rapping about Palmdale?
zevonyumaxray@reddit
It definitely belongs here. Very sci-fi looking.
therealestscientist@reddit
That beak is quite prominent lol
YogurtclosetJumpy770@reddit
The thing's a fuckin giant lawn dart looking for a golf course to stab.
hongooi@reddit
When the rendering glitch hits
JSpencer999@reddit
Still-Union-2528@reddit
Extremely unhappy I missed it