[Background sound/chatter]
>>...keep coming...
...all right, slow down a bit...
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>>Up!
[Background sound/chatter]
>>...all right, go in...
>>...quarter inch...
[Background sound/chatter]
>>...rolling forward...
>>...quarter inch...
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>>Let's keep going up...
>>...right side good...
>>Up, go-
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>>Move it forward...
>>Going forward...
>>Go.
[Background sound/chatter]
>>...that's it...
>>...good.
[Background sound/chatter]
>>Yay!
[Applause]
>>You got a weight?
>>...460...
>>...same on this side...
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>>My name is Paul Dees,
I'm an aerospace engineer with NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center.
I work in propulsion integration and test for the X-59 aircraft.
We just installed the engine into X-59.
It's a General Electric GE 414-100 engine for the X-59 aircraft.
So this engine is a GE F414-100 engine.
It's an engine specifically designed for single engine aircraft.
The X-59 is a purpose built aircraft
to show that we can quiet the sonic boom.
If people are familiar with
sonic booms, they're very loud, can be very disruptive.
But over the last 10, 15, 20 years, NASA has been working on technologies
to quiet that sonic boom into a sonic thump.
We've rolled all of those technologies into X-59
to prove that it is actually capable to create a quiet supersonic aircraft.
So the engine is what powers everything.
It's what gives the aircraft thrust, moves it through the air
and eventually is what gets it going to the supersonic speeds
where we'll test the X-59's capability to create a quiet sonic thump.
So we just installed the 414 engine into X-59
at Lockheed Martin's skunkworks in Palmdale.
The three team members who were a part of this or three
organizations was NASA, Lockheed Martin and General Electric.
Each portion of the group came together to help with the actual install.
We had mechanics, technicians, engineers all down on the floor
getting the engine in there safely
and making sure that it was installed properly.
Because we're using a 414 engine, there was already ground
support equipment to help lift the engine up into the aircraft.
We used standard F-18
equipment to lift the engine into X-59,
but the process for us is a little bit different.
F-18s have have rails and are a little bit easier
and a little bit easier to maintain and to do that, that lift, that install.
But when you're doing something
for the first time and especially on a one-off aircraft,
we had a lot of people around with eyes on in different places to make sure that
the engine didn't come into the contact with the aircraft and vice versa
so that nothing was damaged and the engine was safe once
it got up into the airplane.
As far as our group is concerned, what comes next for the for the propulsion
group is we're going to keep supporting the aircraft during its build cycle.
So if you've seen a picture of the aircraft with the engine
hanging, there's still kind of a big gap underneath the airplane.
So the lower empennage still needs to go up.
And that's a huge that's another huge milestone
for the integration of the whole aircraft when it comes together.
I'm very excited.
My group
and the people that I've been working with between Lockheed, NASA, and G.E.
have been working on this for about four years now
to get to this one singular moment and so to see that
actually come to fruition is every engineer's dream.