NASA's X-59 Completes Historic First Flight

NASA’s X-59 Completes Historic First Flight

NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft took to the skies for the first time Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, departing from Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, and arriving at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.

The milestone marks a major step for NASA’s Quesst mission and its goal of enabling quiet supersonic flight over land.

The Quesst mission has two goals. One is to design and build NASA’s X-59 research aircraft with technology that reduces the loudness of a sonic boom to a gentle thump for people on the ground. The other is to fly the X-59 over several U.S. communities to gather data on public responses to the sound generated during supersonic flight and deliver that data set to national and international regulators.

For more information about the X-59 and NASA’s Quesst mission, visit www.nasa.gov/quesst