NASA's New Supersonic X-59 Aircraft Shows Off Its Dizzying Acrobatics in New Video
NASA is expanding the X-59’s flight envelope to collect handling data and support future quiet-supersonic overflights over land.
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6 Articles
NASA has published images of the X-59, its experimental silent supersonic flight plane, performing a series of test maneuvers over the Mojave Desert in California on April 14. Passant Rabie publishes it in Gizmodo on May 4. The X-59 has been on the air since October 28, 2025, when it completed its inaugural flight, and each test session brings the aircraft closer to the supersonic threshold. The goal is not to make history with speed, but to mak…
NASA’s Supersonic X-59 Pushes the Envelope
NASA and Lockheed Martin’s experimental supersonic X-59 is demonstrating that envelope expansion testing is about more than flying faster and higher. Ultimately, the goal is to bring the aircraft to a speed of Mach 1.4 and altitude of 55,000 feet, under which conditions it is expected to produce a “sonic thump,” or quiet sonic boom. A planned community survey of the X-59’s noise levels could give regulators and lawmakers the evidence they need t…
NASA has tested the X-59 aircraft over the Mojave Desert, which could enable supersonic civil aviation in the future.
NASA's X-59 Jet Advances Through Key Flight Tests Above the Mojave Desert
Photo credit: NASA / Lori Losey On April 14, video footage captured NASA’s X-59 silent supersonic research aircraft speeding through the skies over California’s Mojave Desert. Lockheed Martin built the jet, which has a needle-shaped nose and an engine located high on its back. It is nearly 100 feet long and has a wingspan of [...]
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