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, which occurs when aircraft fly at such speeds. 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 understand 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.

NASA will provide live coverage as it reveals its X-59 aircraft during a ceremony at 4 p.m. EST on Friday, Jan. 12, as part of the agency’s Quesst mission to make commercial supersonic flight possible.

The ceremony, hosted by prime contractor Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, will stream live on the NASA+ streaming service. Coverage also will air on NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and on the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA TV through a variety of platforms, including social media.