Category: Commercial Supersonic Technology

There’s No Place Like NASA’s New X-59 Hangar Home 

There’s no sign reading “home sweet home” in the hangar where the X‑59 now sits, but the sentiment is unmistakable among those tending to the quiet supersonic aircraft. Located at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, the X-59 hangar was built in 1968 but looks like new thanks to a full renovation and […]

NASA’s X-59 Prepares for Second Flight

NASA’s X-59 experimental aircraft is preparing for its second flight, a step that will set the pace for more flight testing in 2026.  Over the coming months, NASA will take the quiet supersonic jet faster and higher, while validating safety and performance, a process known as envelope expansion.  NASA test pilot Jim “Clue” Less will be at the X-59’s […]

NASA Adds Two F-15 Aircraft to Support Supersonic Flight Research

Two retired U.S. Air Force F-15 jets have joined the flight research fleet at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, transitioning from military service to a new role enabling breakthrough advancements in aerospace. The F-15s will support supersonic flight research for NASA’s Flight Demonstrations and Capabilities project, including testing for the Quesst mission’s […]

NASA’s X-59 Completes First Flight, Prepares for More Flight Testing

After years of design, development, and testing, NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft took to the skies for the first time Oct. 28, marking a historic moment for the field of aeronautics research and the agency’s Quesst mission. The X-59, designed to fly at supersonic speeds and reduce the sound of loud sonic booms to […]

NASA Rehearses How to Measure X-59’s Noise Levels

In a stretch of California’s Mojave Desert, NASA conducted a full-scale “dress rehearsal” to prepare how it will measure the noise generated by the X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft. The team behind the successful test flight series operates under NASA’s Commercial Supersonic Technology project. Beginning June 3 and concluding this week, researchers conducted a dry […]

NASA’s X-59 Quiet Supersonic Aircraft Begins Taxi Tests

NASA/Jacob Shaw NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft has officially begun taxi tests, marking the first time this one-of-a-kind experimental aircraft has moved under its own power. NASA test pilot Nils Larson and the X-59 team, made up of NASA and contractor Lockheed Martin personnel, completed the aircraft’s first low-speed taxi test at U.S. Air […]

NASA F-15s Validate Tools for Quesst Mission

High over the Mojave Desert, two NASA F-15 research jets made a series of flights throughout May to validate tools designed to measure and record the shock waves that will be produced by the agency’s X-59 quiet supersonic experimental aircraft. The F-15s, carrying the recording tools, flew faster than the speed of sound, matching the […]

NASA X-59’s Latest Testing Milestone: Simulating Flight from the Ground

NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft successfully completed a critical series of tests in which the airplane was put through its paces for cruising high above the California desert – all without ever leaving the ground. “The idea behind these tests is to command the airplane’s subsystems and flight computer to function as if it […]

NASA Calibrates Second Shock-Sensing Probe for X-59 Testing

When you’re testing a cutting-edge NASA aircraft, you need specialized tools to conduct tests and capture data –but if those tools need maintenance, you need to wait until they’re fixed. Unless you have a backup. That’s why NASA recently calibrated a new shock-sensing probe to capture shock wave data when the agency’s X-59 quiet supersonic […]