NASA’s X-59 Team Testing Aircraft Performance at All Speeds

https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/quesst/2026/05/14/nasas-x-59-team-testing-aircraft-performance-at-all-speeds/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nn202619 NASA's Quesst mission, which features the one-of-a-kind X-59 aircraft, will demonstrate technology to fly supersonic, or faster than the speed of sound, without generating loud sonic booms. NASA will then survey how people respond when the X-59 flies overhead, sharing these reactions to the quieter sonic "thumps" with national and international regulators to inform the establishment of new data-driven acceptable noise thresholds related to supersonic commercial flight over land. Quesst is supported through NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.