WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- U.S. security and aerospace company Lockheed Martin has begun to build an experimental aircraft to test quieter supersonic flight, which could support a quiet supersonic commercial travel in the future.
The company, which is famous for high-tech aerospace products such as F-35 and F-22 jet fighters, said on Friday that it began manufacturing the first part for the X-59 Quiet Supersonic Technology aircraft.
The aircraft was designed to cruise at 55,000 feet at a speed of about 940 miles per hour while creating a noise as loud as a car door closing rather than a shocking sonic boom, which is the enormous volume of noise generated whenever an object travelling through the air at a speed faster than the sound.
According to Lockheed Martin, the X-59 will conduct its first flight in 2021, collecting community response data on the acceptability of the noise generated by the aircraft.
The company said that this will help U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to "establish an acceptable commercial supersonic noise standard to overturn current regulations banning supersonic travel over land."
In April, NASA awarded Lockheed Martin a contract worth nearly 250 million U.S. dollars to to design, build and flight test an aircraft capable of reaching supersonic speed without creating the deafening sonic boom.
"The start of manufacturing on the project marks a great leap forward for the X-59 and the future of quiet supersonic commercial travel," said Peter Iosifidis, Low Boom Flight Demonstrator program manager of Lockheed Martin Skunk Works.
"The long, slender design of the aircraft is the key to achieving a low sonic boom. As we enter into the manufacturing phase, the aircraft structure begins to take shape, bringing us one step closer to enabling supersonic travel for passengers around the world," Iosifidis added.
