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’s X-59 Goes from Green to Red, White, and Blue
NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft continues to make progress, most recently moving to the paint barn at Lockheed Martin Skunk…
NASA Test Piloting Legends Reunite
Nils Larson, aerospace engineer and test pilot for NASA’s X-59 aircraft, met up with his former student, Artemis II astronaut…
NASA Targets 2024 for First Flight of X-59 Experimental Aircraft
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…
NASA’s X-59 Moves Closer to Runway
This series of images shows NASA’s X-59 as it sits on the flight line — the space between the hangar…
NASA’s X-59 Tail Installed
NASA’s X-59 has undergone final installation of its lower empennage, better known as the tail assembly. NASA’s X-59 has undergone…
NASA Armstrong Advances Shock Wave Photography
Sound never looked so good! Using a special handheld camera, researchers at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California,…
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. Starting in 2024, it will be flown above select U.S. communities to collect data from residents responding to the X-59’s sonic thump.
Learn More About the X-59 Aircraft Specs
A Major Milestone for the X-59
NASA has reached a major milestone. The team putting together NASA’s X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology airplane at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works factory in Palmdale, California, finished major work on the wing. The wing section is considered the structural backbone of the aircraft.
The X-59 team closed parts of the wing’s interior that are intended to never be touched again by human hands. Moving at a steady pace, technicians continue to work on many parts of the aircraft simultaneously. The forebody section of the aircraft will carry the pilot needed to fly the aircraft and all the avionics. The aft part of the aircraft will hold an F414 GE engine and other critical systems.
The assembly process will continue as the team pushes to the next major milestone, which is merging all three major sections of the aircraft in the spring of 2021.
