NASA's X-59 reaches speed and altitude milestones ahead of first quiet supersonic flights
Key takeaways
- The plane will soon be ready to fly over US communities.
- The X-59 is designed to fly at supersonic speeds without producing a loud sonic boom; instead, it'll make a "quiet sonic thump," according to NASA.
- In a test flight on Friday, the X-59 flew Mach 1.4, or about 924 mph, and reached an altitude of 55,000 feet.
The plane will soon be ready to fly over US communities.
NASA/Lori Losey NASA's X-59 research plane took its first supersonic flight at the beginning of the month, and now it's demonstrated that it can reach the speed and altitude conditions it'll need to achieve for planned trips over US communities in the near future. The X-59 is designed to fly at supersonic speeds without producing a loud sonic boom; instead, it'll make a "quiet sonic thump," according to NASA. For now, though, it's flying alongside another research craft that does produce a sonic boom, to obscure whatever noise it makes as it undergoes testing.
In a test flight on Friday, the X-59 flew Mach 1.4, or about 924 mph, and reached an altitude of 55,000 feet. For the previous flight, on June 5, it hit Mach 1.1.