NASA unveiled the X-70 Fractal, a new crewed experimental aircraft intended for advanced aviation research, during the UP.Summit at Kennedy Space Center on Florida’s Space Coast.
The agency said the high-performance research platform is built around rapidly reconfigurable flight-control technology, allowing teams to study aircraft maneuverability in crewed flight. Its modular design also can carry up to 2,000 pounds of experimental payloads internally and externally, giving researchers the ability to change out technologies for different flight tests.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the agency expects the aircraft’s first flight under the NASA banner within two years.
NASA lists the X-70’s designed takeoff weight at 10,000 pounds. It is designed to cruise at Mach 0.75, fly as high as 45,000 feet and have an operational range of more than about 1,726 miles, or 1,500 nautical miles.
The X-70 joins NASA’s lineup of experimental X-planes, a program that has included the Bell X-1, the X-15 and the current X-59 quiet supersonic demonstrator. NASA said the new aircraft will expand its ability to test emerging aviation technology in flight.
