NASA unveiled the crewed X-70 Fractal at the UP.Summit at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on 4 November, introducing a modular research aircraft for testing flight-control systems and manoeuvrability in real flight. The agency plans to use it as a configurable platform for aviation experiments, with capacity for up to 2,000 pounds of payloads carried internally or externally. NASA expects the aircraft to make its first flight under the agency’s colours within two years.
The X-70 has a stated take-off weight of 10,000 pounds and is designed to cruise at Mach 0.75, reach 45,000 feet and fly more than 1,500 nautical miles. Its rapidly reconfigurable flight controls are intended to let researchers test different technologies and aircraft responses across a range of operating conditions. NASA has not identified the aircraft’s manufacturer, disclosed its cost or detailed its initial experiments and flight-test schedule.
The agency places the aircraft in its X-plane research lineage, which includes the Bell X-1, X-15 and X-59. NASA’s released image of the X-70 is labelled as generated and does not constitute a confirmed photograph of the aircraft.