NASA has deployed an approximately 30-mile-long array of specially-configured microphones in the Mojave Desert as part of a flight series in preparation for the X-59’s testing.
One of multiple microphone stations used in the CarpetDIEM flight series, which gave researchers valuable lessons learned in preparations to deploy a similar array for the quiet supersonic X-59. Prior to community overflights, X-59 will undergo an acoustic validation phase, during which NASA will deploy the array of specially-configured microphones to measure the X-59’s thumps, in order to verify that they are as quiet as predicted.
Credits: NASA Photo / Lauren Hughes
These microphones will eventually be used to verify that the X-59 can reduce the sonic boom to a quiet thump.
