NASA's X-59 Quiet Supersonic Jet Marks One Year Since First Flight: 40 More Flights, Top Speed Mach 1.53
NASA said on Oct. 28 that its X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft has marked one year since its first flight on Oct. 28, 2025. In that year, the one-of-a-kind jet at the heart of the Quesst mission has completed 40 additional flights, reaching a maximum altitude of more than 56,000 feet and speeds up to Mach 1.53. The test campaign is flown from NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.
While the first flight focused on low, slow flights to conduct systems checks, NASA said the X-59 has since spent the year expanding its flight envelope, flying at the altitudes, speeds, and conditions that will be used for all aspects of the Quesst mission. In September, the aircraft set its own record by completing six flights in one week.
The X-59 is shaped so that, at its intended quiet supersonic cruise of Mach 1.4 at 55,000 feet, people on the ground will not hear a loud sonic boom. Instead, they will hear a softer thump that NASA projects will sound like a car door closing from about 20 feet away.
In the coming months, the team will continue expanding the flight envelope while transitioning toward a new phase of testing: acoustic validation, focused on analyzing the sounds the X-59 makes. NASA will study and record those sonic thumps and survey how people respond, sharing the reactions with national and international regulators to inform new, data-driven acceptable noise thresholds for supersonic commercial flight over land.
NASA said the Quesst mission aims to help enable a new era of commercial supersonic flight over land, exploring the potential for a new market of faster air travel.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：NASA 的 X-59 静音超音速研究机在空中飞行（NASA Armstrong 飞行研究中心官方照片，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons）。 / Photo: NASA's X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft in flight (NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons).
