NASA isn’t just about space!
Join Donald Durston, Aerospace Engineer at the NASA Ames Research Center, to learn about the science behind sonic booms, and what NASA is doing to bring back supersonic air travel.
Our presenter has assembled a list of NASA Supersonic Research and X-59 links to support this presentation:
Join us Thursday, April 29 at 6:00 PM for this FREE, online presentation.
Click the 'Watch Live' button below shortly before 6:00 PM on April 29!
About the Speaker
Don Durston earned his bachelor’s degree from Cal Poly Pomona and his master’s from Stanford, both in Aerospace Engineering. He has been working at NASA Ames Research Center as an Aerospace Engineer for over 41 years on experimental aerodynamics of advanced aircraft in the wind tunnels. He is currently on the Commercial Supersonics Technology Project, and is in charge of sonic boom wind tunnel testing for NASA. The project is developing technology to enable supersonic travel in the near future, 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 U.S. After many sonic boom wind tunnel tests and computational studies, NASA and some of the major airplane companies have learned how to shape supersonic transports so that they will create quieter booms that will sound more like thumps, not much louder than conversational levels. The research is mature enough now that NASA has contracted Lockheed to build a Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator (LBFD) aircraft, dubbed the X-59. It is about half built now, and its first flight will be in early 2022. Later, it will fly over populated areas to get the public's response to the quieter booms. Don will talk about the research leading up to this, and the plans for the LBFD project to demonstrate the aircraft-shaping technology that will enable the sonic boom to be reduced to a sonic “thump.”
