NASA's CarpetDIEM Flight Series Tests Future Ground Recorders for X-59

NASA’s efforts to prepare for future sound data recording of the agency’s quiet, supersonic X-59 aircraft are making progress. A recently-completed flight series called CarpetDIEM (Carpet – DEE- em) tested state-of-the-art ground recording stations, designed to be able to hear and record the unique sounds from the X-plane. The X-59’s goal is to reduce the intensity of sonic booms, which are heard when an aircraft flies faster than the speed of sound, to a quiet sonic “thump”. When the X-59 flies, NASA will record the sonic thumps as part of the effort to validate its quiet supersonic design.