NASA just revealed the newest member of its iconic X-plane family. On Wednesday, the space agency showcased its newest experimental aircraft, the X-70 Fractal, during the UP.Summit at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Compared to static flight-test rigs or single-purpose demonstrators, the X-70 is built around a single, ambitious vision: adaptable speed.
It is a crewed, modular flying laboratory designed to rapidly swap experiments and push aircraft maneuverability beyond anything NASA has flown before. The plane bridges decades of flight history with the future. If all goes as planned, NASA plans to launch the aircraft on its maiden flight within the next two years.
At first glance, the specs reveal a high-performance workhorse. Weighing in at a 10,000-pound takeoff weight, the aircraft will be able to cruise at Mach 0.75, climb to 45,000 feet, and cover more than 1,726 miles (1,500 nautical miles) on a single run.
What really sets the Fractal apart is the technology housed within it. Or rather, what you can swap out.
The X-70 can carry up to 2,000 pounds of experimental payloads spread across internal and external mounting locations. Paired with rapidly reconfigurable flight-control tech, engineers won’t have to redesign an entire plane every time they want to test a new aerodynamic concept. They can plug it into the X-70 and take off.
“Its modular design and ability to rapidly swap internal and external payloads will keep our teams flying, learning, and moving quickly from one experiment to the next. We expect her first flight under the NASA banner within the next two years, and X-70 is just one part of this new beginning for aeronautics.
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