Investigating Space: Supersonic Flight

Saturday, November 19
1 p.m. – 2 p.m.
Free With General Admission

NASA’s Quiet Supersonic Technology (Quesst) program aims to re-ignite and re-launch supersonic air travel for the 21st Century. Get all the latest news about how NASA is working to transform air travel in this century. Don Durston, from NASA Ames is an Aerospace Engineer will explain this new version of supersonic flight that Ames is contributing to by creating the X-59 supersonic plane. NASA’s X-59 will fly faster than the speed of sound and will feature innovative technology to reduce loud sonic booms to a quiet thump. The X-59 plane is scheduled to be launched later this year. 

After the presentation, design and build your own rocket and learn what it takes to launch a successful mission. Explore how different materials change how the rocket moves in our test launch area.  

1 pm, Don Durston, NASA’s Quest Toward Quiet Supersonic Flight, Studio 3 

NASA has been working with major aerospace companies to learn how to design a supersonic airplane to have a quiet sonic boom, and a new airplane—the X-59—has been designed and built by Lockheed Martin to do just that! Don’s talk will review NASA’s research in supersonic flight leading up to the X-59, and he will tell you about the unique features of this airplane that will enable it to produce a sonic “thump” instead of a boom. 

Don Durston has been working at NASA Ames Research Center as an Aerospace Engineer for 43 years now on experimental aerodynamics of advanced aircraft concepts in the Ames wind tunnels.  He is currently working on the Commercial Supersonics Technology Project and oversees sonic boom wind tunnel testing for NASA.  The project is developing technology to enable supersonic civilian travel soon, with the primary focus on reducing the loudness of the sonic boom so that we can convince the FAA to lift the ban on supersonic flight over the continental United States. Don has run many wind tunnel tests of future supersonic transports that have been designed to reduce the sonic boom loudness, and most recently, he has run sonic boom tests of the X-59.