When it comes to a supersonic jet, engineers are not afraid of developing strange designs if they lead to faster aircraft.
In the latest version (one year after the start of the works) NASA's X-59 QueSST prototype looks like a pencil with wings.
The shape of the plane brings with it immediate consequences: say, if the cockpit is many meters away from the nose, what purpose does the front window serve?
That's why the solution found for X-59 (and I would swear, on many supersonic aircraft of the future, civil and military) is a 4K screen and two cameras.
Instead of a “trivial” window, the X-59 supersonic aircraft has a monitor that transmits images from two cameras and combines them with context data. The system is called eXternal Visibility System, for friends XVS.
X-59 is part of the Low-Boom Flight project, an initiative that aims to create supersonic aircraft that don't deafen when they break the wall of sound.
Engineers believe the right shape will reduce the superfast plane's bang during supersonic flight, although it is difficult to eliminate it entirely.
“The eXternal Visibility System is one of the most innovative solutions for a new fast aircraft like the X-59, which will produce a thud-like sound instead of the annoying boom,” reads a NASA statement.
