NASA’s pencil-shaped supersonic plane to feature 4K TV instead of front window

In a bid to make aircrafts faster, NASA has introduced its innovative upcoming supersonic pencil-shaped plane that features a huge 4K screen instead of a front window.

NASA’s X-59 QueSST experimental quiet supersonic aircraft, which features a unique cockpit containing a big 4K screen in place of a normal front window, is aimed to go greatly faster than sound without even producing a sonic boom or any kind of noise ‘louder than a car door closing’.

Shaped like a pencil with wings, the aircraft’s cockpit is meters and meters away from the nose. To enable pilots to see out the front, NASA has attached a 4K TV with a couple of cameras, reported Science Alert.

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The 4K monitor uses two cameras outside the aircraft combined with terrain data in order to show the pilot a live feed of where they’re going – a setup which has been dubbed as the eXternal Visibility System or XVS.

“The [eXternal Visibility System] is one of several innovative solutions to help ensure the X-59’s design shape reduces a sonic boom to a gentle thump heard by people on the ground,” NASA wrote.

“Though not intended to ever carry passengers, the X-59 boom-suppressing technology and community response data could help lift current bans on supersonic flight over land and enable a new generation of quiet supersonic commercial aircraft.”

As per Tech Crunch, the X-59 plane is still currently in construction, and is expected to launch in 2021.