NASA teased an unidentified aircraft during a recent presentation as part of the All-In Summit in Los Angeles.
The aircraft was featured in a slide titled, “Rebuilding our X-plane portfolio.” As one of the hosts called the aircraft a Blackbird, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said, “You sure that’s a Blackbird?” He did not offer further detail on the aircraft.
Appearing on a podcast following his presentation, Isaacman said, as per The Aviationist, “The first ‘A’ in NASA is our aeronautics portfolio. What we’ve contributed to over the decades, you may not realize this. Look, when you go see an F-22 fly at an air show and wow you, the fly-by-wire technology was us. The thrust-vectoring technology was us. NASA’s been contributing to breakthroughs in aeronautics, both civil, commercial and national-security applications, for a long time.”
He added, “You know what I want to do? I want to get back to the radical airframe and engine designs like we were always supposed to do, and you’re getting a little bit of a taste for that…”
NASA’s most prominent X-plane is Lockheed Martin’s X-59, which is considered a “one-of-a-kind supersonic aircraft” that can fly at supersonic speeds while “reducing the sonic boom to a gentle thump,” Lockheed Martin explained. In doing so, the airframe overcomes “one of the primary barriers to supersonic commercial flight, which is currently restricted over land due to noise concerns.”
Isaacman addressed the X-59 in his remarks, stating, “The X-59 is researching quiet supersonic flight, but it’s just the beginning as NASA recommits to flight test and works alongside industry to push the boundaries of airframe and propulsion design. It will not be long before NASA is flying once again as high and as fast as we have from decades past, and then even more. But if this frontier is going to expand as rapidly as we believe it will be, we will have to cultivate the talent to lead it. The space domain deserves an institution focused on that future, and call it what many already have and should, a Starfleet Academy.”
