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- Jun 5, 202690% CONFIDENCEfrom the source
NASA’s X-59 Flies Supersonic for the First Time
- NASA test pilot Jim "Clue" Less took off and landed at Edwards Air Force Base, reaching about Mach 1.1 (713 mph) and 43,400 feet.[1]
- The flight began at 11:08 a.m. PDT and lasted 81 minutes, with the team focusing on flying qualities at subsonic and then supersonic speeds.[1]
- A NASA F-15 chase plane monitored the X-59; its own loud sonic booms obscured any sound the X-59 made.[1]
- Since its first flight on 28 October 2025 the team had flown 16 times in 90 days, and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the next step was to push to Mach 1.4.[1]
- The critical milestone still to come is the first "mission conditions" flight at Mach 1.4 and about 55,000 feet, the base conditions for flying over U.S. communities.[1]
- Quesst will share how people perceive the aircraft’s quiet thump with U.S. and international regulators to help set data-driven noise standards for supersonic flight over land.[1]
Notable features
- The X-59 is designed to fly at supersonic speeds while creating only a quiet thump instead of a loud sonic boom; Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for NASA’s Quesst mission.[1][3]
- It is 99.7 ft (30.4 m) long with a 29.5 ft (9.0 m) wingspan and a maximum takeoff weight of 32,300 lb (14,700 kg).[2]
- A single General Electric F414 engine producing 22,000 lbf (98 kN) with afterburner gives it a planned top speed of Mach 1.5 and a cruise of Mach 1.42 at 55,000 ft.[2]
- A long, narrow airframe and canards keep the shock waves from coalescing; a 2018 projection put its thump on the ground at 75 EPNdB, as loud as closing a car door.[2]
- The long nose blocks all forward vision from the flush cockpit, so the pilot relies on a vision system built around a forward 4K camera; the cockpit, ejection seat and canopy come from a Northrop T-38 and the landing gear from an F-16.[2]
References 585% CONFIDENCE
The first entry is always the pin's source. Overall confidence is a weighted average of how firmly each reference supports the start and end times used above; a reference counts half as much for every 180 days older than the newest.
- [1]90%nasa.gov/aeronautics/x-59-first-supersonic-flightnasa.gov· Posted Sep 21, 2026· Starts Jun 5, 2026 ✓· 23% of score
Happened as dated, per nasa.gov[3][4]: the X-59 "marked a major milestone Friday, June 5, when it flew faster than the speed of sound for the first time."
- [2]80%Lockheed Martin X-59 Quessten.wikipedia.org· Added Sep 22, 2026· 23% of score
Wikipedia's X-59 article gives the "99.7 ft (30.4 m) long with a 29.5 ft (9.0 m) wingspan" airframe, the GE F414 with 22,000 lbf, the Mach 1.42 cruise at 55,000 ft, the 75 EPNdB thump projection and the forward 4K camera vision system.
- [3]90%
- [4]85%NASA’s X-59 Flies Supersonic for First Timenasa.gov· Published Jun 8, 2026· 15% of score
NASA’s[1][3] own Quesst mission blog entry for the same milestone, confirming the 5 June 2026 first supersonic flight.
- [5]78%NASA’s X-59 QueSST Goes Supersonictheaviationist.com· Published Jun 8, 2026· 15% of score
Independent aviation coverage confirming the date, the Mach 1.1 top speed and the 43,400 ft altitude.[1]
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