NASA announced its latest X-plane experimental aircraft called the Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator (LBFD). The agency signed a contract to design the plane back in 2016; now it’s ready to proceed with development and construction.
If the LBFD is successful, it will be a testbed for quiet supersonic technology, and possibly allow for supersonic flights over land, getting passengers from New York to Los Angeles in just two hours.
Flight tests to start in 2021.
Lockheed Martin’s research will focus on reducing the noise of a sonic boom (hence the name “low boom”), allowing the LBFD to fly quietly over land.
