NASA is requesting a 24-percent bump in its aeronautics research budget to move ahead in developing a series of x-planes that would enable large-scale testing of both supersonic and subsonic technologies.
The agency, which in Fiscal Year 2016 has a $640 million budget for its Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, is asking for $790 million in fiscal 2017, rising to a peak of $1.3 billion in 2023 as the flight-test program is in full swing.
Jaiwon Shin, associate administrator of Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, said the White House’s signoff on the plan last month was akin to “Christmas in January” and marked an alignment with its strategies as well as an acknowledgement of the ground work the agency has already accomplished on the projects.
The plans are part of a larger vision outlined in 2013 that would foster safe, efficient growth of global operations and include supersonic aircraft, ultra-efficient commercial vehicles, low-carbon propulsion, real-time system-wide safety assurance and autonomy.
The x-plane projects are housed under the New Aviation Horizons program that Shin said “would demonstrate the most promising technologies in an integrated fashion.” The research for a low-boom supersonic is among the most mature and could be offered for bid in a “full and open competition” for industry partnerships as early as the current fiscal year, Shin said. Other x-planes, such as a hybrid wing body flight demonstrator, could be ready for bid next year with other possibilities, such as a distributed electric propulsion flight demonstrator, coming later.
Shin said NASA expects to attract substantial interest from potential industry partners in the project. The development of the 50-percent-scale x-planes, NASA said, is designed to test “new technologies that will dramatically reduce fuel consumption, noise and emissions and open new markets for U.S. industry.”