NASA’s Newly Unveiled X-59 Quiet Supersonic Plane Eyes First Flight

NASA and Lockheed Martin Skunk Works recently unveiled the X-59 experimental aircraft, designed and built to reduce a loud sonic boom, associated with faster-than-sound flight, to a quiet sonic thump. The X-59 now moves closer to its first flight — - a step toward making commercial supersonic flight over land a reality for everyone. Researchers on NASA’s Quesst mission will work to understand people’s reactions to the X-59’s thump and give that data to regulators, who will then consider writing new sound-based rules to lift the ban on commercial supersonic flight over land.

For more information on X-59, and the Quesst mission, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/mission/quesst/

Producers: Sami Aziz, Blair Allen
Editor: Ryan Darden
Color Grading: Ron Beard
Videographers: Lori Losey, Jacob Shaw, and Lockheed Martin

Credit: NASA