Overview
- The X-59 reached about Mach 1.077 on Friday during an 81-minute test sortie that topped out near 43,400 feet and marked the aircraft’s first time flying faster than the speed of sound.
- NASA plans an imminent mission-conditions flight to cruise near Mach 1.4 at roughly 55,000 feet to gather operational data that match the conditions the jet would use over communities.
- An F-15 chase plane monitored the first supersonic flight and its own booms obscured any direct acoustic readings from the X-59, so dedicated community overflights remain necessary to validate the quiet‑thump claim.
- Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works built the X-59 under NASA’s Quesst program with a design that includes a long tapered nose, no forward windows and an eXternal Vision System, and the test airframe carries strain gages and chase‑plane probes to record shock and structural data.
- NASA will use flight and ground noise data from later tests to share with U.S. and international regulators as part of efforts to set new noise standards that could enable commercial supersonic routes if the quiet‑thump is confirmed.