Overview
- On October 28, test pilot Nils Larson flew the X-59 from Palmdale to Edwards for 1 hour 7 minutes, reaching about 12,000 feet and 170–250 knots.
- The 30-meter Lockheed Martin demonstrator uses a GE F414 engine, a 12-meter pointed nose, fuselage shaping, and a dorsal intake to turn a boom into a quieter thump.
- NASA will analyze initial results, then expand testing into transonic and supersonic regimes before formal acoustic validation in 2026 and subsequent community-response flights.
- The program seeks to deliver noise data to ICAO for possible new standards, with the target for submissions now pushed to around 2030.
- Earlier issues with the flight-control computer and hydraulics were resolved to reach first flight, and the X-59 serves purely as a data-gathering platform rather than a commercial aircraft.