NASA’s X-59 Prepares for Supersonic Flight | Armstrong Flight Research Center

NASA’s X-59 Prepares for Supersonic Flight | Armstrong Flight Research Center

NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft is gearing up for its most significant flights yet as teams continue expanding the aircraft’s flight envelope ahead of upcoming tests at speeds faster than sound.

Since the aircraft’s first flight, the X-59 team has spent months evaluating its performance and handling qualities across a growing range of flight conditions. Take a look at the milestones achieved so far that mark steady progress as NASA moves closer to the aircraft’s first supersonic flight.

The upcoming supersonic flights will help engineers evaluate the aircraft’s performance across more of its operating range as teams advance toward later phases of the Quesst mission.

The X-59 aircraft builds on decades of supersonic flight research and is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission. The vast amount of data collected over the years has given designers the tools they needed to craft the shape of the X-59. The goal is to enable the aircraft to fly at supersonic speeds and reduce a loud sonic boom to a quieter “sonic thump.”

Data gathered during X-59 research flights will be shared with the U.S. and international regulators to inform the establishment of new, data-driven acceptable noise thresholds related to supersonic commercial flight over land.

The X-59’s engine, a modified F414-GE-100, packs 22,000 pounds of thrust. This will enable the X-59 to achieve the desired cruising speed of Mach 1.4 (925 miles per hour) at an altitude of approximately 55,000 feet. It sits in a nontraditional spot–atop the aircraft—to aid in making the X-59 quieter.

The X-59's goal is to help change existing national and international aviation rules that ban commercial supersonic flight over land.

Learn more about the Quesst mission: https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/quesst/

Video Credit: NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC)
Duration: 3 minutes, 36 seconds
Release Date: May 28, 2026

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