Quiet supersonic X-59 jet soars over California in unofficial first test flight

By Steve Gorman

PALMDALE, California (GWN) -NASA’s X-59 supersonic-but-quiet jet airplane soared over the Southern California desert on Tuesday in the first test flight of an experimental plane designed to break the sound barrier without all the noise.

The smooth plane, measuring just under 100 ft (30 meters) from nostril to tail, took off about an hour after dawn from a runway at Plant 42 of the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, about 60 miles (100 km) north of Los Angeles.

After a steep climb over sod fields just east of the runway, the aircraft was seen banking to the north on a trajectory toward Edwards Air Force Base, about a dozen miles away, where it was anticipated to land. It was accompanied by a NASA chase aircraft.

The single-engine X-59 appeared to fly at subsonic speeds, as was anticipated for its initial test flight.

A crowd of about 200 aerospace staff and their households watched the takeoff from a protected distance parked along a close by freeway.

A Lockheed Martin spokesperson, Candis Roussel, told GWN in a temporary e mail assertion that the “X-59 successfully completed its first flight this morning” and hailed it as a “significant aviation milestone.” She said the company would supply particulars later.

The X-59, a one-of-a-kind experimental plane, is constructed to attain a cruising pace of 925 mph (1,490 kph), or Mach 1.4, at an altitude of 55,000 ft (16,764 meters), more than twice as high and roughly 60% quicker than typical airliners fly.

The aircraft’s distinctive form is designed to enormously scale back the explosive-like sonic increase usually produced when an plane breaks the sound barrier, reducing the amount to a muffled “sonic thump” no louder than slamming a car door.

Perfection of such low-decibel flight technology might make supersonic plane more conducive to industrial aviation service, particularly over populated areas.

The supersonic Concorde plane started scheduled transatlantic flights with British Airways and Air France in 1976. But the aircraft was retired in 2003 due to high working prices, restricted seating and sluggish passenger numbers following a deadly crash in July 2000 and the September 11 assaults in 2001.

In press supplies posted online last month, NASA said the X-59’s first flight could be a “lower-altitude loop at about 240 mph (386 kph) to check system integration, kicking off a phase of flight testing focused on verifying the aircraft’s airworthiness and safety.”

During subsequent test flights, the X-59 will journey increased and quicker, finally exceeding the pace of sound – roughly 761 mph (1,225 kph) at sea stage.

The California Manufacturers & Technology Association earlier this month named the X-59 as 2025’s “Coolest Thing Made in California” in its annual statewide technology contest.

(Reporting by David Swanson in Palmdale, California; Writing and further reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Howard Goller)