NASA’s experimental X-59 aircraft marked a major milestone Friday, June 5, when it flew faster than the speed of sound for the first time, setting the stage for demonstrating its quiet supersonic capabilities later this year. 

NASA test pilot Jim “Clue” Less took off and landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California, reaching a top speed of approximately Mach 1.1 (713 mph) and altitude of 43,400 feet. The X-59’s flight began at 11:08 a.m. PDT and lasted 81 minutes, with the team focusing on flying qualities at both subsonic and then supersonic speeds.  

In the coming days, we expect to take the next step and push to Mach 1.4

jared isaacman

NASA Administrator

”X-59 is getting ready for its quiet supersonic debut. Since the aircraft’s first flight on Oct. 28, 2025, the team has made tremendous progress, flying 16 times in the last 90 days and getting into a steady test rhythm. In the coming days, we expect to take the next step and push to Mach 1.4,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman “I’m grateful to the NASA team and Lockheed Martin Skunk Works for their help getting us to this point, and I hope this is the first of many collaborations as we rebuild NASA’s X-plane portfolio.” 

The X-59 is designed to fly at supersonic speeds while creating only a quiet thump instead of a loud sonic boom. For this flight, a NASA F‑15 chase plane flew nearby to monitor the X‑59. The loud sonic booms from the F-15 obscured any sound made by the X-59.  

“The X-59’s first supersonic flight is a testament to America’s enduring leadership in science, engineering, and aerospace innovation,” said Michael Kratsios, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. “This achievement comes as the Trump Administration continues work to unleash supersonic flight and enable American ingenuity.” 

This first supersonic flight is a significant milestone, but an event even more critical to the mission is upcoming. In just days, the aircraft is expected to make its first “mission conditions” flight, reaching a cruising speed of Mach 1.4 (925 mph) and altitude of approximately 55,000 feet. The X-59 also will be accompanied by a chase plane for this flight.  

This speed and altitude are the base conditions for the X-59 when it will eventually fly over several U.S. communities enabling NASA to gather data about how people may perceive its quiet thump. NASA will share this data with U.S. and international regulators to help establish new data-driven noise standards to enable a future viable market for supersonic commercial flight over land. 

For the last several months, the X-59 has been participating in an ongoing series of flights where the plane has been flying at a wide range of speeds and altitudes – a process known as envelope expansion. These tests are the first phase of the X-59’s flight testing. They are focused on performance and involve chase plane monitoring. When the aircraft completes this phase it will enter another, focused on its sound profile in order to verify its quiet thump capability.  

The X-59 is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission, which aims to demonstrate quiet supersonic flight and help enable commercial supersonic flight over land worldwide. These advancements will help travelers reach their preferred destinations faster, spending less time in the air. 

Through Quesst’s development of the X-59, NASA also will deliver design tools and technology for quiet supersonic airliners that will achieve the high speeds desired by commercial operators without disturbing people on the ground. NASA will validate design tools through ground and flight testing, providing U.S. aircraft manufacturers the ability to explore new quiet supersonic concepts, and provide them with confidence that their resulting designs will meet quiet flight requirements.  

Read more about NASA’s Quesst mission and the X-59.

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From high‑speed research flights to high‑altitude science campaigns, NASA depends on aircraft that perform at their best and the ground crews who keep them mission ready.

At NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, specially trained maintenance crews are essential to keeping the agency’s aircraft flying safely and reliably.

This year, NASA added two F-15s and a Pilatus PC-12 to its fleet at Armstrong. These aircraft – alongside platforms such as the high-altitude ER-2s and NASA’s newest X-plane, the X-59 – reflect a wide range of capabilities. The maintenance staff is responsible for keeping each one mission ready.

“That’s the beauty of our Armstrong maintenance teams. They adapt to any type of change,” said Jose “Manny” Rodriguez, NASA Armstrong Gulfstream G-IV crew chief. “One day you could have an instrument being loaded, and the next day it may be aircraft reconfiguration, all while other aircraft systems may need fixing. They adapt and they overcome any situation.”

Each aircraft supports a specific mission, whether it’s conducting science research, serving as a support or chase aircraft, or assisting NASA rocket launches. The aircraft fly at different speeds, carry specialized hardware, and require maintenance crews to stay agile with fast-paced changes.

To ensure NASA can make aeronautics and science advancements safely, the crews work continuously, checking on the ejection seats, filling the tanks with fuel, and changing out brakes, wheels, wiring, and hardware constantly, all of which can degrade with each flight.

On any given day, an aircraft may be flight-ready for a mission, undergoing scheduled maintenance or modifications, or down for longer-term care.

There are typically multiple NASA Armstrong aircraft in the air in one day. Currently, the center’s C-20A is flying in Peru and Panama, the X-59 is often  flying twice per day with a chase plane, and the center’s ER-2 is flying in Colorado, supporting the Geological Earth Mapping Experiment (GEMx). All this work is happening at the same time, and Armstrong’s skilled maintenance staff is prepping and fixing aircraft as needed along the way.

The team includes mechanics with both military and civilian backgrounds, and the job involves a lot of on-the-job training.

Maintenance crews are composed of:

• a crew chief – the person in charge of the airplane
• an avionics technician, who specializes in navigation, communication, and flight control systems
• quality assurance personnel, who oversee the work being done
• additional mechanics assigned to each airplane

After the maintenance crew ensures the aircraft is in the best condition possible, the team tows it out to the flightline, and it becomes ready for operations. The NASA pilot assigned to the mission will walk around the aircraft with the assigned crew chief for a final safety check before flight.

“There is a crew chief assigned to every aircraft,” Rodriguez said. “The crew chief is responsible for the integrity of that aircraft, and at the end of the day, his signature and the pilot’s together are what constitutes that the aircraft is safe for flight.”

Maintenance crews track each flight to help ensure it completes the mission without returning early. If an aircraft does return to base early, the maintenance team stands ready. When it lands, the crew is right there again, helping the research team complete the mission and fixing whatever is needed to stay nimble and ready for the next flight.

“It’s difficult at times to work with different airplanes from both the civilian and military sides, but it’s very rewarding to see that we have the capability and the expertise to keep these aircraft flying,” Rodriguez said.

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There’s no sign reading “home sweet home” in the hangar where the X‑59 now sits, but the sentiment is unmistakable among those tending to the quiet supersonic aircraft.

Located at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, the X-59 hangar was built in 1968 but looks like new thanks to a full renovation and modernization. While the X-59 was being assembled in Palmdale, California, workers at NASA Armstrong gutted the hangar, adding new electrical wiring, a fire suppression system, office space, air conditioning, and other safety features.

“The whole team is incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished in preparing this new home for the X-59,” said Bryan Watters, the NASA project manager at Armstrong who led the renovation effort. “The fact we could take a 1960s hangar and modernize it for use by a 2020’s X-plane is very special.”

The X-59 is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission to enable a new era of commercial supersonic air travel over land by reducing the sound of typically loud sonic booms to a much quieter sonic thump.

Home hunting

When NASA test pilot Nils Larson successfully took the X-59 into the air for the first time on Oct. 28, 2025, he flew from the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works assembly site in Palmdale to nearby NASA Armstrong, from where test flights have continued to make progress.

From the beginning of the program, knowing the X-59 would eventually need a new residence at NASA Armstrong, Quesst managers were on the hunt for somewhere to house the quiet supersonic demonstrator.

Like anyone looking for the ideal place to call home, the team made sure there would be enough space for the airplane and all its support equipment. But with the experimental jet measuring at just under 100 feet long and 30 feet wide, there were few options.

“We had to find a hangar that was long enough so that part of the X-59 wouldn’t hang outside, exposed to the elements,” Watters said.

Building 4826, as the hangar is officially designated, turned out to be the choice spot. “It was basically stripped down and gutted so that essentially it was just structural steel with siding. From that state it was rebuilt,” Watters said.

The feature they are perhaps most proud of is the hangar’s new floor. Covering more than 32,000 square feet, it is coated with epoxy that prevents any spills from seeping into the concrete.

From the hangar’s office windows, the view of the hangar floor can include the F-15 research jets that will be used as chase planes to support X-59 flights in the coming months. The renovation faced challenges along the way, chief among them being supply chain issues stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. But there were some incredible, unforgettable moments too.

Circa 1990

Nov. 2025

Circa 1990Nov. 2025

Circa 1990

Nov. 2025

past and present

Hangar Updated to Continue Hosting Historic Research

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Image Details

This NASA hangar at Armstrong Flight Research Center originally was constructed in 1968 and since then has hosted a number of history-making programs. Compare the two images above to see how the hangar looked during the late 1980s when it hosted an F-15 research aircraft (left), and beginning in 2025 after it had been renovated and modernized to host the X-59 quite supersonic technology demonstrator aircraft.

Moved in

With X-59 now flying regularly and comfortably settled into its new digs, the Quesst team is gauging its performance on the way to quiet supersonic flight.

“This is truly a great time for Quesst and the X-59,” said Cathy Bahm, NASA’s project manager for the Low Boom Flight Demonstrator. “It’s also still a little surreal to be able to just walk down from your office and see the airplane in our hangar.”

For more than a year, the hangar refurbishment team worked through every detail of the X-59’s new home to make sure it would be safe and sound. But actually seeing the aircraft occupy that space is an adjustment for them, too.

“We’ve looked at X-59 models on our desk for years and then, you know, there’s the real thing right in front of us, in a hangar that we renovated,” Watters said.

A real thing in the hangar – and streaking across the California desert sky. The X-59’s transition from an idea into a working aircraft is a testament to the teams that help build out every aspect of its infrastructure.  

NASA’s X-59 is supported under the agency’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.

About the Author

Jim Banke

Managing Editor/Senior Writer

Jim Banke is a veteran aviation and aerospace communicator with more than 40 years of experience as a writer, producer, consultant, and project manager based at Cape Canaveral, Florida. He is part of NASA Aeronautics' Strategic Communications Team and is Managing Editor for the Aeronautics topic on nasa.gov. In 2007 he was recognized with a Distinguished Public Service Medal, NASA's highest honor for a non-government employee.

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