You don’t need any aeronautical experience to fly it, but you need a 28” waist.
Comment on NASA, Lockheed Martin Reveal X-59 Quiet Supersonic Aircraft
rickdg@lemmy.world 8 months ago
It’s like a blind Pinocchio flying at the speed of sound controlled by a touch screen. 2024, ladies and gents.
doublejay1999@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Kbobabob@lemmy.world 8 months ago
What an ignorant statement…
Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 8 months ago
It was a joke.
But no, I don’t believe it’s controlled with a touch screen. Though it is “daring” shall we say… to make a plane with no cockpit windows.
Kata1yst@kbin.social 8 months ago
In commercial airliners, nearly the entire flight is now closely monitored and controlled by redundant computer systems. And the pilots rarely use the front window, they mostly fly by instrument.
Cameras as the cockpit windows aren't really that crazy at this point. Really glass cockpits are a formality.
Takumidesh@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Glass cockpit is a specific term for flight decks that have replaced analog gauges with digital gauges and screens.
Pilots use the windows all of the time. They use it to look for traffic and for vfr approaches.
Meowoem@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
It’s really not, flying without looking out the window is very common especially for NASA and the USAF.
Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Absolutely, in fact you not just nasa or military, almost everyone does that. You need to prove that you can fly without looking out the window to get your “instrument rating” and be legally allowed to fly at night. Every instrument flight rated pilot can do it (a majority of pilots). However, airports are lit up with lights, so even at night or in fog, you can see the runway as you’re landing. If you have no windows, you can’t do that, you’ll need someone to guide you down.
That’s not my concern, the issue is a lack of redundancy. If the computers crash or if the vehicle loses power your suddenly have no windows. From a design perspective, it’s a risky choice. Not insurmountable, but it’s a potential problem point. It’s a choice that adds an additional critical single point of failure.