Lori and her family had never really doubted it. Rich, after all, was the intense fitness freak who was always cool in a crisis, and he had a deep, engrained sense of right and wrong. But as a research test pilot, it’s really cool because I get to look at new concepts early. I also do stuff as a research pilot where I’ll fly airplanes, and we’ll use airplanes to study the Earth. One of my friends who’s a test pilot says it’s like getting paid to eat ice cream.

She glowered during the ceremony, cringed at the way her grief was on public display. She was icy toward other relatives of passengers and crew, by her own admission.

HOST PADI BOYD: The long and thin design of the X-59 helps disperse the sound waves that add up to the sonic boom.

And I think it will probably become the second most emotional day I have at NASA when this aircraft actually flies. I think that’s going to be the most emotional thing I’ve ever experienced. And I can relate to all of our space missions when they actually get a launch. And I’m just so looking forward to that time. So I’m pretty excited about the future and getting this airplane flying. The interesting characteristic of this aircraft is it has a very long nose, which is really how we shape our sonic boom, which is ultimately the goal of this aircraft. Stylish Design: This airplane features a trendy interior with faux leather seats, an airstair that unfolds to let dolls disembark, and wings that fold right under the plane!Trivia: The footage was taken from Josh Selig's 1994 Sesame Street short, "I'm a Little Airplane", which is where the company got its name. The short was filmed at Pine Bank Bridge at Central Park in New York City. Music/Sounds: A "BOING!" sound when the emblem bounces onto the screen, followed by the "Little Airplane!" sound from the last logo (again, possibly voiced by Danica Lee, who voiced Ming Ming in Wonder Pets). I really wanted to be alone. I wanted to remain isolated," she said. "It was not a pretty side of me. I'm not proud of it at all, but I'm just being honest." On that mentioned show, the 2004 Granada logo appears below the footage. The URL is also absent in this variant. In a lot of ways, I’ve worked on X-59 ever since I got to NASA. I got to NASA in 2007 when I retired out of the Air Force, and I have always been working on sonic boom research ever since I came to NASA. And a lot of that was looking at how the sound moves through the atmosphere.

HOST PADI BOYD: Right this moment, you are hearing my voice because sound waves are traveling from your device, through the air, and reaching the complex system of bones and structures in your ears. And one of the things in this message [was] 'photographs of a 100th birthday party,' " Lori told us. For hours, Lori pulled out various items from Rich. All day, it had been clear how much everything meant to her. HOST PADI BOYD: One of the longest-running commercial planes to fly at supersonic speeds was called the Concorde. According to British Airways, it flew more than 2.5 million passengers from 1976 to 2003. Starting with Wonder Pets, the clip is zoomed out to reveal half of a building and the URL now has 'www.' sandwiched next to 'l', making it read "www.littleairplane.com".HOST PADI BOYD: The G in “G-suit” refers to G-forces, or multiples of the force of gravity pulling on your body. HOST PADI BOYD: So what exactly causes a sonic boom? Well, airplanes create sound waves as they fly. When they’re flying slower than the speed of sound, those waves travel out in all directions from the plane.

To all the people, the 50 people or whatever it is sitting in the control room monitoring your every move. HOST PADI BOYD: Nils hasn’t gotten to fly the X-59 yet…it’s still in its final months of ground testing. But part of his job as a test pilot is to try out lots of other planes and plane components that we can use to design and build the X-59. And most planes that go really fast don’t have a lot of room for the pilot to stretch out.HOST PADI BOYD: This is NASA’s Curious Universe. This episode was written and produced by Christina Dana. Our executive producer is Katie Atkinson. The Curious Universe team includes Maddie Arnold and Micheala Sosby. Wonder Pets and Go, Baby!: "Little Airplane!" (possibly voiced by Danica Lee, who voiced Ming Ming in the first aforementioned show). Legacy: This is seen as a memorable logo among those who grew up watching Little Airplane's shows made during this time.