NASA last month awarded grants to fund a five-month study on how to design and build an airplane that could demonstrate technology to reduce the sonic boom during supersonic flight. The four industry teams–Boeing Phantom Works, Raytheon Aircraft, Gulfstream/Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin/Cessna–have each received a $1 million grant. Information from the study will be used to develop a request for proposals to design and build a low-sonic-boom demonstrator.