Quesst Mission Image GalleryThis collection of images showcases the history, research, and operations associated with NASA's Quesst mission to enable the possibility of commercial supersonic flight over land. The X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology, or QueSST, wing assembly is lifted by a crane and moved to another area of...In the high desert of California, some of the most important aircraft in aviation history have been built and flown....NASA’s Low Boom Flight Demonstration Mission is beginning to plan and prepare for a series of tests using the X-59...The pilot of NASA’s X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology, or QueSST, aircraft will navigate the skies in a cockpit unlike any...NASA pilot Nils Larson evaluates software in the X-59 simulator that could predict where sonic booms would be felt on...Using the schlieren photography technique, NASA was able to capture the first air-to-air images of the interaction of shockwaves from...One of the greatest challenges of the fourth phase of Air-to-Air Background Oriented Schlieren flights, or AirBOS flight series was...Using the schlieren photography technique, NASA was able to capture the first air-to-air images of the interaction of shockwaves from...One of the greatest challenges of the fourth phase of the Air-to-Air Background Oriented Schlieren flights, or AirBOS flight series...When aircraft fly faster than the speed of sound, shockwaves travel away from the vehicle, and are heard on the...This image of the horizon was seen from the cockpit of NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center’s F/A-18 research aircraft during...Pictured, a Lockheed Martin technician at their Palmdale, California, facility prepares a machine to shave the first piece of NASA’s...To address the expected noise levels of future aircraft, NASA’s Commercial Supersonic Technology project is already developing technologies focused on...Aeronautical innovations are part of a government-industry partnership to collect data that could make supersonic flight over land possible, dramatically...When NASA’s next X-plane takes to the skies, it will produce some pretty cool images. Thanks to the completion of...Samantha O’Flaherty, Test Engineer for Jacobs Technology Inc., finalizes the set-up of the Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST) Preliminary Design Model...The future faces of aviation are awesome. Members of Aviation Explorers Post 747, a group of middle- to high-school youth...A NASA F-18 jet takes off from the agency's Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on...NASA is using a modern version of a 150-year-old German photography technique -- schlieren imagery -- to visualize supersonic flow...“Armstrong Flight Research Center chief pilot Nils Larson and I were flying supersonic runs to note the handling qualities between...NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, center, answers questions along with David Melcher, CEO of the Aerospace Industry Association (AIA), left, and...In the wake of recent success with air-to-air schlieren photography using the speckled desert floor as a background, researchers at...Using a massive update to a 150-year-old German photography technique, NASA and the United States Air Force recently released what's...The Twin Rectangular Jet model, installed on the Nozzle Acoustic Test Rig in the Aeroacoustic Propulsion Laboratory at NASA's Glenn...The window in the sidewall of the 8- by 6-foot supersonic wind tunnel at NASA's Glenn Research Center shows a...The X-53 was a modified F/A-18 fighter used for a joint Air Force, Boeing and NASA project called the Active...NASA continued to explore new aircraft designs capable of reducing the noise level of sonic booms by test flying an...The first plane to reach Mach 2, or twice the speed of sound, was the Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket. Civilian test...Perhaps the most famous of the X-planes is the North American X-15 rocket plane. During its 199 test flights between...The North American XB-70 Valkyrie was the prototype for a supersonic bomber that was never built, but the two test...This NASA F-16XL-2 aircraft was used during 1995-96 for the Supersonic Laminar Flow Control project to demonstrate that airflow could...Taking the leap well beyond supersonic flight, a hypersonic X-43 aircraft reached a record-breaking speed of Mach 9.6, or nearly...This modified Northrop F-5E jet was used during 2003 for NASA's Shaped Sonic Boom Demonstration program, a successful effort to...Originally designed as a supersonic interceptor for the Air Force, the YF-12A was a variant of Lockheed's A-12 reconnaissance plane....With Mach 1 and Mach 2 behind them, NACA engineers sought to expand on their research to fully understand the...This concept of an aircraft that could fly at supersonic speeds over land is being used by researchers, especially at...If human beings are ever to fly faster than the speed of sound from one side of the country to...This updated future aircraft design concept from NASA research partner Lockheed Martin shows a few changes from another concept seen...Our ability to fly at supersonic speeds over land in civil aircraft depends on our ability to reduce the level...This future aircraft design concept for supersonic flight over land comes from the team led by the Lockheed Martin Corporation....
