NASA's about to fly its powerful X-plane. It could make history.

Table of Contents

Aircraft that travel faster than the speed of sound generate deafening sonic booms.

, that could change.

Across the country, but NASA's Quiet SuperSonic Technology mission, or QueSST, aims to make a change.

"I'd like to commend NASA on their efforts to develop a practical solution," said Bob van der Linden, an aviation expert and supervisory curator at the Aeronautics Department of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, when NASA unveiled the plane last year.

Although the economic prospects and customer demand for future supersonic flights are still unclear — high-speed flight is extremely fuel-intensive and would drive up ticket prices — it would have a revolutionary impact on air travel. A passenger could travel from Los Angeles to New York City in just two and a half hours. (Seats on the 1,300 mph Concorde plane, retired in 2003, were too pricey for most travelers, at some five times the cost of flying on a 747, which is largely why the Concorde commercially failed. It also wasn't allowed to fly over land, which severely limited the Concorde's routes.)

Jet engine tests, which give an aircraft the thrust it needs to reach speeds above 767 miles per hour.

The X-59 aircraft will fly at 925 mph about 55,000 feet above various US communities to test the 100-foot-long experimental craft's ability to quiet the disturbing sound of supersonic booms.

I couldn't find any text about "How to tame a sonic boom" to paraphrase.

To reduce the sonic booms an aircraft makes when breaking the sound barrier, engineers incorporated several design innovations into the X-59.

• The X-59 aircraft has a long, sleek structure with a distinctive nose-shaped design, meant to "dissipate" shockwaves generated when it collides with air molecules. If successful, the plane will not produce intense shockwaves. "Instead, people will hear only a soft 'sonic thud' — if anything at all," according to NASA.
• 's surface.
• The X-59 is extremely narrow, so the cockpit, located near the back of the plane, has a limited view of what's ahead. There isn't a forward-facing window. Luckily, NASA's eXternal Vision System (XVS) provides a high-definition display of the outside world. "A 4K-monitor serves as the central 'window' allowing the pilot to safely see traffic in their flight path," NASA said.
• Engineers built the aircraft with "swept back" wings, a design feature that was intended to reduce drag.

After the first test flights in 2025, Lockheed Martin will transfer the plane to NASA. Following that, after acoustic testing at California's Edwards Air Force Base and the Armstrong Flight Research Center, NASA plans to fly the X-plane over selected US cities in 2026 and 2027.

Stay alert. The X-59 may fly right above you.

on Microsoft Start.