Production of NASA's new X-59 supersonic jet continues amid coronavirus outbreak

[Admin]

Work continues on NASA's new supersonic X-plane, the X-59 test vehicle, despite closures and delays in the space industry caused by the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.

Production of NASA's new X-59 supersonic jet continues amid coronavirus outbreak : Read more

 

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No word yet on how this is ethical or in compliance with the California stay at home order. Lockheed Martin's other operations get Defense Industrial Base classification as essential. This ain't that.

 

[Lord Hung]

No word yet on how this is ethical or in compliance with the California stay at home order. Lockheed Martin's other operations get Defense Industrial Base classification as essential. This ain't that.

It is permitted under The Transportation Systems Sector in aviation.

 

[Redacted]

It is permitted under The Transportation Systems Sector in aviation.

Respectfully, I have to disagree. It's a stretch to include the production line of a single demonstrator aircraft for a commercial technology that is probably decades away from implementation.

Below is the description of the Aviation subsector, I personally can't see fitting this into anything mentioned:

• Aviation includes aircraft, air traffic control systems, and about 19,700 airports, heliports, and landing strips. Approximately 500 provide commercial aviation services at civil and joint-use military airports, heliports, and sea plane bases. In addition, the aviation mode includes commercial and recreational aircraft (manned and unmanned) and a wide-variety of support services, such as aircraft repair stations, fueling facilities, navigation aids, and flight schools.

Rightfully so, this pertains to keeping the existing planes and support services functional.

Let me be a little more clear about my view, basically Lockheed has chosen to waive themselves of any ethical responsibility or direct impact to their bottom line during this crisis, even though they are one of the corporations that could most afford to lead by example. It's telling that NASA is cutting back their in-person effort to protect their people, but sorry Lockheed people, you have to stay on the line so the product can be a few weeks less late.