NASA unveiled the X-70 Fractal, a crewed experimental aircraft, on Nov. 4 during the UP.Summit at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The agency says the high-performance research platform is designed to speed the development and testing of advanced aviation technologies.
The aircraft can carry up to about 900 kilograms of experimental payloads inside and outside the airframe. It has a takeoff weight of about 4,500 kilograms and is designed to cruise at Mach 0.75, or three-quarters the speed of sound, reach altitudes of up to 13,700 meters and fly more than 1,700 miles, NASA said. Aviation Week described it as a subsonic testbed for advanced flight controls and maneuvering.
The picture NASA shared is a generated image. Aviation Week said the dark, smoky rendering showed a blurred outline of an airframe with canted tails and possibly engine inlets mounted on either side of a wide fuselage.