Quesst: The Vehicle
NASA’s first purpose-built, supersonic X-plane in decades will soon take to the skies. A single pilot is to fly the 99.7-foot-long, 29.5-foot-wide aircraft powered by a single jet engine. Its design research speed will be Mach 1.4, or 925 mph, flying at 55,000 feet. NASA will use the experimental X-59 to provide data that could change the rules that ban supersonic flight over land by proving a sonic boom can be reduced to a barely-audible sonic thump heard on the ground.
Quesst: The Vehicle News
Stay up-to-date with the latest content from the Quesst mission on the X-59 aircraft.
NASA and Lockheed Martin formally debuted the agency’s X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft Friday. Using this one-of-a-kind experimental airplane, NASA aims…
Lee esta historia en español aquí. NASA’s X-59 aircraft is heading out of the hangar – preparing to embark on…
It’s almost time for NASA’s supersonic X-59 airplane to make its red, white, and blue public debut, and you’re invited…
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft continues to make progress, most recently moving to the paint barn at Lockheed Martin Skunk…
Nils Larson, aerospace engineer and test pilot for NASA’s X-59 aircraft, met up with his former student, Artemis II astronaut…
NASA’s Quesst mission has adjusted the scheduled first flight of its X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft to 2024. A one-of-a-kind experimental…
Some Assembly Required: An X-59 Image Gallery
Specifications on the X-59 Research Aircraft
This “four-view” of the X-59 research aircraft provides specifications of the piloted vehicle that is being built by Lockheed Martin Skunk Works. The X-59 is an experimental aircraft only; it is not a prototype design for a commercial airliner and will never carry passengers. Its unique shape and set of technologies reduce the loudness of a sonic boom reaching the ground to that of a gentle thump. It will be flown above select U.S. communities to collect data from residents responding to the X-59’s sonic thump.
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How NASA’s X-59 May Change the Future of High-Speed Flight
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft is the culmination of decades of aeronautics and supersonic flight research. The X-59 is designed to be able to fly supersonic, or faster than the speed of sound, without producing a loud sonic boom. Instead, the X-59 is designed to reduce that boom to a quieter sonic “thump.” The X-59 is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission, which seeks to survey the public’s response to quieter supersonic flight and provide data to regulators to consider removing the current ban on commercial supersonic flight over land, opening the future to reduced flight times around the country and the world.
Watch this 2-minute video on YouTube
