Home Travel NASA’s X-59 QueSST travels at supersonic speeds.

NASA’s X-59 QueSST travels at supersonic speeds.

NASA’s X-59 QueSST flew faster than the speed of sound for the first time, expanding into the supersonic portion of its flight range.

NASA’s experimental This milestone was achieved as the aircraft continues to expand its flight range following its first flight in October 2025.

go supersonic

On this test flight, the aircraft was flown by NASA test pilot Jim “Clue” Less. Less took off from Edwards Air Force Base, California, at 11:08 a.m. PDT and landed again 81 minutes later, obtaining new data on its flight qualities at subsonic and supersonic speeds.

During the flight, the X-59 was supported by a NASA F-15 safety tracking aircraft. “The F-15’s loud sonic boom masked all sounds from the X-59,” the agency said. The X-59 was designed to produce only a “quiet thud instead of a loud sonic boom” while flying at supersonic speeds.

“X-59 is preparing for a quiet supersonic debut,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “Since the aircraft’s first flight on October 28, 2025, the team has made tremendous progress, getting into a steady testing rhythm with 16 flights over the last 90 days. We look forward to taking the next step and taking it to Mach 1.4 in the coming days.”

NASA said in a press release that this new milestone will be reached “in just a few days” and will be “even more critical to the mission.” In practice, this was defined as a “mission condition” flight reaching a cruising speed of Mach 1.4 (925 mph) and an altitude of approximately 55,000 feet.

These are the same conditions used during X-59 by several communities to collect data on how people perceive quiet thumping sounds. This data will help regulators establish new noise standards in an effort to make supersonic commercial land flights possible.

envelope expansion

Following its first flight on October 28, 2025, the NASA said the first phase of the

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NASA’s (Image credit: NASA/Jim Ross)

Other factors reviewed include control performance, loading and structural dynamics, and subsystems including hydraulics, fuel, avionics, landing gear, and more. NASA also said it is monitoring the performance of the eXternal Vision System, a camera system that replaced the traditional windshield because of the X-59’s long nose.

NASA also described some of the X-59’s maneuvers during its first block of test flights.

  • Roller coaster maneuvers involve a series of actions that move the aircraft up and down to better understand aerodynamic forces and characterize stability and control characteristics.

  • A bank-to-bank maneuver is when an aircraft rolls smoothly from one side to the other, such as tilting the wings to the right, then gently leveling them again and rolling to the left.

  • The flutter stimulation maneuver introduces intentional vibrations to the aircraft structure during flight to ensure that the aircraft’s flutter boundaries are well understood and the structure maintains a safe margin throughout the flight envelope.

  • The wing-level push maneuver is a controlled wing-level pitch descent movement used to evaluate the longitudinal stability, pitch response, and trim characteristics of an aircraft under given test conditions.

  • Gear extension maneuvers involve extending an aircraft’s landing gear at a controlled speed and configuration to allow engineers to measure the aerodynamic, structural and handling qualities of the gear arrangement, which can cause rapid changes in drag, pitch, vibration and airflow. The landing gear retraction was tested as part of the X-59’s first envelope extension test flight block.

X-59

The X-59 Quesst (Quiet SuperSonic Technology) is an experimental supersonic aircraft developed by Skunk Works for NASA’s Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator project. The technology used in the jet is intended to influence the next generation of quiet supersonic aircraft in an effort to reintroduce supersonic commercial flight.

In fact, the X-59 was designed to produce a quieter sonic boom within acceptable noise levels to help lift the ban on commercial overland supersonic travel imposed by the FAA in 1973. According to NASA, the sonic boom from the new aircraft will be less than 75 dB perceived from the ground, about a third lower than the reported 100 to 110 dB for Concorde.

A key feature of the aircraft that could achieve this goal is its long, tapered nose, which makes up almost a third of the X-59’s length. The nose is designed to break up the shock waves that typically produce the sonic boom of supersonic aircraft.

NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft flies over California’s Mojave Desert on April 14, 2026. (Image credit: NASA)

This configuration places the cockpit almost half the length of the aircraft, a solution that precludes the use of a traditional windshield. Instead, NASA developed the eXternal Vision System, a series of high-resolution cameras that provide a 4K monitor in the cockpit.

The X-59 is powered by the 22,000-pound thrust F414-GE-100 engine, a modified version of the F414 used by the F/A-18 Super Hornet. The engines are unusually placed at the top of the aircraft, smoothing the underside and helping prevent shock waves from merging behind the aircraft and causing a sonic boom.

The X-59 is equipped with several systems specifically designed to protect the pilot, including a life support system that provides oxygen to the pilot while also powering the G-suit. As additional safety features, the aircraft has ejector seats and canopies modified from the U.S. Air Force T-38 trainer aircraft and is equipped with essentials such as first aid kits, radios and water.

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