[BACKGROUND NOISES]
[ENGINES BOOMING]
5.7, 6.3.
And 836, confirm land and position.
It looks good.
You're clear for the probing run.
Copy here.
Stand by.
No, just go.
Just go.
Don't worry about that.
[BACKGROUND NOISES]
My name is Mike Frederick, and I'm the principal investigator
for the shock-sensing probe.
The shock-sensing probe, it's a five-hole conical probe
that's used to measure the near-field shock
signature of X-59.
So right now, we're testing out some new instrumentation
that we have on the shock-sensing probe
to see if it's going to be suitable for the probe
in the near-field shock signature of X-59.
Now, we're testing it out on the F-15
by flying it up at altitude and probing another F-18, which
is used as the target aircraft.
Typically, the F-15 starts in trail
and outside the shock signature of the target aircraft.
And then we accelerate, so the probe pierces the shocks.
And essentially, we go all the way through the shocks
and we can see that in the control room.
And then once we've seen that we've essentially
pierced through the bow shock of the F-18,
we will ask the F-15 pilot to decelerate and take
another measurement.
First point you need to look is the shocks near the aircraft.
We need to understand the magnitudes of that shock
structure.
Because right now, they use wind tunnel tests, the recent wind
tunnel test, and they've used computational fluid dynamics
to estimate what that shock signature will look like.
When they go to fly phase two, we will be in the control room
monitoring the output from the shock-sensing probe
and then providing data to the researchers that
need that data.