NASA is giving its supersonic X-59 a vacation as the experimental aircraft undergoes a rigorous flight test and envelope expansion campaign.
Space agency Administrator Jared Isaacman said Wednesday that the X-59 is “making her way” to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Isaacman was replying to a post from Victoria Fontana, a contributor to digital news site The Aviationist who spotted the aircraft overflying Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth (KNFW).
Briefly visible in Fontana’s video of the X-59 is an F-15 decked out in a patriotic stars and stripes livery. The Eagle is one of several that NASA uses as chase planes. The F-15’s sonic booms drown out any noise created by the X-59, which is designed to help NASA test quiet supersonic flight, but the space agency will use a special probe to measure its shock wave signature.
Also accompanying the experimental airplane are NASA’s Gulfstream C-20A (NASA802) and F/A-18D Hornet chase plane (NASA862). FLYING readers can track the agency’s aerial assets here.
The X-59 will reportedly make an appearance at NASA’s Max Power expo and airshow at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It is expected to land at the Space Florida Launch and Landing Facility (KTTS) in Titusville this week, per FlightAware. Flyovers are planned during the event on November 8-9, though it is unclear whether the supersonic test article will fly or remain on static display.
Flyovers announced so far include F-16s from the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, F-5s flown by Isaacman and his NASA Freedom 250 aerial team, and Isaacman’s personal MiG-29. Also on tap are sorties by the Navy’s F/A-18 Super Hornets, Air Force’s C-17 Globemaster III, Coast Guard’s C-27J Spartan and MH-65 Dolphin helicopters, and NASA’s F-15D and 777-200ER flying laboratories, as well as Rooster Aerobatics’ Pitts S2-B.
What Is the X-59?
The experimental aircraft was developed for NASA by Lockheed Martin. It is designed to turn sonic booms into 75-decibel “thumps,” far quieter than Concorde’s recorded 120-130-decibel booms.
The X-59 is instead projected to sound like a car door closing from about 20 feet away. It is the cornerstone of NASA’s Quiet SuperSonic Technology (Quesst) project, which seeks to validate the aircraft’s sonic boom-cancelling features and emulate how future supersonic commercial airliners may operate.
The X-59’s long, slender nose is designed to break up shock waves in front of the aircraft. It extends about one-third of its nearly 100-foot length, requiring windows to be replaced with an eXternal Vision System (XVS).
The aircraft uses the Super Hornet’s F414-GE-100 engine, which is top-mounted to give it a smooth underside and prevent sound waves from merging in its wake. It also adapts life support systems from the F-15, landing gear from the F-16, control stick from the F-117, and ejection seat and cockpit canopy from the Air Force’s T-38 trainer.
Pilots Behind the Mission
NASA test pilot Nils Larson commanded the X-59’s maiden flight in October 2025. Jim Less, who was the F-15 chase plane pilot for that flight, flew the aircraft’s first supersonic flight in June. The two have alternated piloting duties, taking turns flying the X-59 and chase planes.
Larson in September described his flights as “exciting but uneventful” and said the X-59 “likes to fly fast.” That month, he received the Iven C. Kincheloe Award from the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, becoming the first to receive the honor for a NASA test flight project in 44 years. Larson was recognized for making the X-59’s first flight and subsequent envelope expansion flights.
Mike Lippert, who was added to the test pilot roster in July, made his first X-59 flight on October 21 after months of simulator training and ground preparation alongside Larson and Less. Over more than two decades, Lippert logged more than 2,600 hours of flight time in 60 different types of aircraft, including the F-35 and AV-8B Harrier. But the X-59 is a different animal.
“This flight was very special to me,” Lippert said. “For as long as I can remember, I’ve dreamt of doing exactly what I got to do today, testing a truly unique aircraft and working with the exceptional people on this test team.”
The testing so far has taken place at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. Between flights, the pilots work with engineers and maintenance personnel to review data and make any required refinements, such as adjusting the aircraft’s control software.
Completed Testing and Next Steps
NASA on Wednesday commemorated the X-59’s one-year anniversary, saying it has completed 40 flights since its maiden voyage. The aircraft has achieved a maximum altitude of more than 56,000 feet, speeds up to Mach 1.53, and flight time as long as 102 minutes. For comparison, the first flight hit marks of 12,000 feet, 230 mph, and 67 minutes.
Following a series of envelope expansion missions, the X-59 made its first supersonic flight June 5. It reached a speed of Mach 1.4 and altitude of 55,000 feet—the mission conditions for NASA’s planned survey of the aircraft’s noise—on June 12.
Flight 25 came August 21, and the aircraft made six flights in three days in September, setting a record for cadence. NASA is exploring how it performs across a range of speeds, altitudes, and maneuvers.
Next will be a dedicated acoustic validation phase at Edwards Air Force Base (KEDW), planned for later this year, to analyze the X-59’s noise profile. Larry Cliatt, acoustic validation technical lead for Quesst, in September said this phase is “where the real research begins.”
“It will be a complex and demanding flight campaign focused on demonstrating that the X-59 can produce the quiet sonic thump it was designed to achieve,” Cliatt said.
Quesst’s final phase is the community survey, under which NASA will conduct up to five 30-day studies concentrated in different regions. Each will cover 1,000 respondents, and the space agency hopes to solicit 350,000 annual responses. It could fly the X-59 as many as six times daily.
The experimental vehicle will never fly paying customers. But NASA will share data collected from the survey with U.S. and international regulators to guide their creation of noise standards that permit supersonic flight over land.
The FAA has banned the practice since 1973, which limited Concorde mainly to routes out of New York, Washington, D.C., London, and Paris. But in June the agency proposed interim noise-based certification standards under pressure from Congress and the White House to reverse the ban.
NASA will also use the X-59 program to create design tools for aircraft manufacturers, allowing them to validate the noise profiles of their own designs. Only four companies have supersonic special flight authorizations (SFAs) that permit testing, including Boom Supersonic, which in 2025 said it flew a supersonic demonstrator without creating audible sonic booms on the ground.
