NASA has a new X-plane, or at least a generated image of one. The agency unveiled the X-70 Fractal on Wednesday, November 4, at the UP.Summit at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, describing it in a news release as a crewed research aircraft that can be reconfigured quickly to test new aviation technology.
The first flight is still some way off. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the agency expects it "within the next two years." For now, what the public has is a set of target numbers and, as Space.com points out, an AI-generated image of two canted tail fins emerging from swirling smoke.
What NASA says it can do
The X-70's pitch is something like a flying workbench. NASA says it carries up to 2,000 pounds of experimental payloads, internally and externally, and uses "rapidly reconfigurable flight-control technology."
The agency says that will let it "explore aircraft maneuverability in ways never before demonstrated in crewed flight." Isaacman framed the benefit in practical terms: "Its modular design and ability to rapidly swap internal and external payloads will keep our teams flying, learning, and moving quickly from one experiment to the next."
The numbers in the release are these:
- Takeoff weight of 10,000 pounds
- Designed cruise speed of Mach .75
- Altitudes of up to 45,000 feet
- Range of more than about 1,726 miles (1,500 nautical miles)
- Experimental payload of up to 2,000 pounds
Space.com offers some useful comparisons. That cruise speed is about the same as a Boeing 737 Classic, it says, and the takeoff weight is close to that of the Model 437 Vanguard, an experimental aircraft developed by Scaled Composites and Northrop Grumman. The two share a similar silhouette too, at least going by NASA's image, while the tail fins are somewhat reminiscent of the F-22 Raptor or F/A-18 Super Hornet.
Space.com is careful on that point, and so should anyone else be: little can be gleaned about the final aircraft from one generated picture.
Where it fits
NASA places the X-70 in a line that runs from the Bell X-1, which first broke the sound barrier in 1947, through the X-15 hypersonic research aircraft to today's X-59 quiet supersonic demonstrator.
The X-59 is the most recent of those, and Space.com notes it has been flying for over a year. Its long nose and missing forward windscreen are all about damping shockwaves, so that it can pass Mach 1 without the usual thunderous boom. The X-70 goes the other way. It is designed to cruise at Mach .75, below the speed of sound, and the emphasis appears to be on what gets carried on it and how it handles.
"For decades, NASA Aeronautics has used X-planes to develop technologies that advance aviation," said Laurie Grindle, director of the Aeronautics Division within NASA's Research and Technology Mission Directorate. "It's exciting to bring on another X-plane to accelerate and drive aeronautics research."
Isaacman called the aircraft "just one part of this new beginning for aeronautics," without spelling out in the release what the other parts are.
What we don't know yet
The release leaves plenty unsaid. It doesn't name a builder, a contract value or a test site, and it doesn't explain the name Fractal. It also doesn't list which experiments will fly first.
The one milestone on the table is that first flight "under the NASA banner." Until then, the next things to watch for are real hardware and a first list of experiments.
Finn's take: I like that NASA's newest aircraft is mostly a promise and a cloud of smoke at this stage. The phrase "under the NASA banner" is the one I keep coming back to, because it's a slightly curious way to describe a first flight. With luck the next update comes with a photograph.
Reporting notes
