NASA Teases X-70 Fractal to Speed Up Testing of Advanced Aircraft Maneuvers

NASA pulled the curtain back on its newest experimental aircraft this week at the UP.Summit held at Kennedy Space Center. The X-70 Fractal arrives as a crewed research platform built to let teams test advanced flight controls and aircraft maneuverability in actual flight rather than relying only on ground rigs or computer models. Administrator Jared Isaacman described it as a high-performance tool that will keep researchers flying and learning while they move from one experiment to the next.

The crew will sit inside an airframe capable of carrying up to 2,000 pounds of experimental gear, either in internal bays or strapped on externally. Teams can quickly swap these gear out, allowing the same plane to support different research initiatives without the need to develop a new vehicle for each one. NASA says the super-versatile flight control technology allows them to test new maneuverability in a piloted plane for the first time. The combination of modular hardware and adjustable controls is the central concept driving the design of this revolutionary plane.

It appears that the weight at takeoff will be 10,000 pounds. The plan is to cruise at 0.75 Mach, climb to 45,000 feet, and travel well over 1,700 miles (or 1,500 nautical miles) in a single loop. This provides researchers with a reasonable range of speeds, altitudes, and distances for some really difficult flying testing under a variety of conditions. According to Isaacman, the first NASA flight should take place within the next few years.

The contractor is yet to be named, and all we have so far is an artist’s rendering of a mysterious plane with twin tails slanted at an unusual angle against a starry night sky with heavy clouds (or smoke). It resembles those experimental test planes or certain modern fighter airplanes, but the ultimate design remains unknown. Isaacman portrayed the X-70 as part of a larger effort to maximize the agency’s X-plane program, stating that more planes are on the way and that people come to NASA to build, learn, and fly. The announcement comes as the X-59 quiet supersonic demonstrator continues to fly and serves as a reminder of the long heritage of experimental aircraft that began with the Bell X-1.

In terms of specifications, we don’t know what engines will be used, the exact proportions, how it will operate itself, or what the first round of trials will be. What we do know is that they want to employ a single plane as a mobile lab, changing the gear it carries and the way it flies from one trip to the next. The goal is to transfer fresh ideas from the drawing board to actual flight data as quickly as possible, which includes keeping the plane in the air while it does so.
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