A year after completing its first flight, NASA’s X-59 supersonic demonstrator has left California for a cross-country trip to Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it will be on static display at the agency’s Max Power aerospace expo and airshow.
Designed and built at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, the Quesst X-plane initially took to the skies on Oct. 28, 2025. That first flight involved low, slow flight for system checks—the aircraft flew for 67 minutes, climbed to an altitude of 12,000 feet, and reached a speed of 230 mph. Since then, the X-59 has reached an altitude of more than 56,000 feet and speeds of up to Mach 1.53.
The flight-test program has continued to steadily progress, completing more than 40 flights as it expanded the envelope. NASA test pilots Nils Larson and Jim “Clue” Less are piloting the aircraft during its trip to Kennedy Space Center, accompanied by F-15 and F/A-18 chase planes.
While plans call for continuing the envelope expansion and systems trials in the coming months, the aircraft’s team will also begin transitioning for its next test phase: acoustic validation. As part of the Quesst mission, the X-59 was designed to test the effects of a quieter supersonic boom on communities to evaluate whether boom-suppressing technologies could support regulations that permit supersonic flight over land.
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