Carol Collins
Massachusetts-based company Harris Miller Miller & Hanson has received a potential eight-year, $29 million contract to help NASA plan, implement and document community overflight tests of an experimental supersonic aircraft fitted with noise reduction technology.
HMMH will support the third phase of the Low-Boom Flight Demonstration mission, a government-industry collaboration to build an X-plane and study human responses to noise from sonic booms, the space agency said Saturday.
NASA works with Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works to build the X-59 Quiet Supersonic Technology research aircraft and plans to test system performance and safety in the second phase of the effort.
The agency noted its partnership with HMMH aims to survey residents in select communities where the overflight demo will take place and submit the data to domestic and international regulatory bodies for potential consideration of sound-based supersonic flight protocols.
Westat, Blue Ridge Research and Consulting and EMS Bruel & Kjae will support the project as subcontractors.
