NASA X-59 Quesst (Quiet Supersonic Technology)

The NASA X59 is designed to fly faster than sound without the loud sonic boom instead of a sharp bang. Its carefully shaped fuselage spreads pressure changes into a soft thump. That's the essence of quiet supersonic transport.

Using Stallion 3D with an OpenVSP model, we recreated a similar flight condition at Mach 1.45 and 55,000 ft. Matching the atmosphere and cruise altitude used in NASA's research. The goal was to see how a properly shaped nose manages shock waves in real air.

The simulation shows a sequence of gentle compressions marching down the forebody, not one big shock front. That's exactly what Quiet Supersonic shaping aims for, gradually spreading delta P over distance. So the far field signature becomes a series of soft steps behind the canopy.

Stallion 3D resolves the complex interaction where the fuselage meets the wing route. This red blue pattern of compression and expansion is a critical region for both drag and noise.

At the rear, the shock wave at the engine inlet radiates into the upper atmosphere. The shaping of the wing and tail controls how the pressure trace closes. That's the difference between ending with a quiet thump instead of a bang.

What's remarkable is that this was all done automatically using Stallion 3D built-in mesh generation. The simulation was performed using cubes throughout the computational domain. No cut cells were used near the boundary to deteriorate the accuracy. This is the advantage of Dr. Hanley's proprietary method. It's a clear demonstration that accurate low boom aerodynamics can be explored directly from geometry.

The Stallion 3D results demonstrates how first principle CFD can reveal the same physical story seen in NASA's X59 tests. Quiet supersonic flight is no longer theoretical. It is a real aerodynamic design problem we can simulate today with our tools.

Want to learn more? Visit hanleyinovations.com