NASA Selects Contractor for Quiet Supersonic Flight Community Testing

b"WASHINGTON, May 7, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --NASA has awarded a contract to Harris Miller Miller & Hanson Inc. of Burlington, Massachusetts, to support a national campaign of community overflight tests using the agency's X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology research aircraft.\nThis cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract has a maximum potential value of approximately $29 million with an eight-year period of performance.\nBlue Ridge Research and Consulting LLC of Asheville, North Carolina\nEMS Brel & Kjr Inc. of Folsom, California\nNASA is designing and building the X-59 research aircraft a piloted, single-seat supersonic X-plane with technology that reduces the loudness of a sonic boom to that of a gentle thump.NASA's aeronautical innovators are leading a team across government and industry to collect data that could allow supersonic flight over land, dramatically reducing travel time within the United States or to anywhere in the world.\nThe scope of the work under this contract includes supporting NASA in the planning, execution, and documentation of phase three of the agency's Low-Boom Flight Demonstration mission .\nNASA currently is working with Lockheed Martin Skunk Works of Palmdale, California, to design, build and conduct initial flight testing of the X-59 research aircraft as part of phase one of the mission.