The real benefits will be with this technology filters down to long haul commercial airliners and freightliners (which would also have to have Pinocchio noses). Maybe there will be a way to fold them for to make room at the airports.

The international flight section of an airport would probably need redesigned gates to accommodate them.

Noel

1 hour ago, birdguy said:

The international flight section of an airport would probably need redesigned gates to accommodate them.

Noel

That's what I was thinking while watching the rollout presentation. Once they land, how practical can these be with their extremely long nose. It's seems a very difficult task to make the noses quickly removable or a very expensive task redesigning long haul terminals.

So if Lockheed partnerships with or sells the technology to Boeing and Airbus, can they actually use it for something useful besides special purpose planes?

47 minutes ago, Fielder said:

So if Lockheed partnerships with or sells the technology to Boeing and Airbus, can they actually use it for something useful besides special purpose planes?

The X-59 fuselage is about 3' 6” wide with room for one person. 

Assuming a passenger version would need to carry 100 passengers like the Concorde, it would need a fuselage about 9' 5” wide like the Concorde, so  about 2.5 times wider, and maybe longer than the Concorde because of the critical nose design. 

As you see the positioning of the landing gear and the tail strike angle of 9.2 degrees, it's hard to imagine being able to scale the X-59 up to Concorde capacity. 

Or, maybe all you have to do is stick an X-59 nose on to a Concorde fuselage.