X-59 moves towards noise measurements after a year of flight tests
· BehindLines newsroom
A year after its first take-off, the X-59 is moving towards another stage: measuring its acoustic signature. In its 28 October progress report, NASA says the aircraft has made forty further flights since its inaugural flight on 28 October 2025. It remains an experimental aircraft programme, with several research stages still ahead.
From take-off to supersonic testing
Lockheed Martin’s release at the time of the first flight places the departure at Palmdale, California, followed by a landing near NASA’s Armstrong centre at Edwards. That initial outing was intended to check the aircraft’s early behaviour and the data needed for flight.
The manufacturer already described a sequence of stages: expanding flight conditions, reaching conditions suited to reduced noise, measuring that noise, and then studying how residents respond to it. The Quesst programme aims to supply data relevant to consideration of commercial supersonic flight over land.
Speed achieved and noise still to assess
NASA says testing has taken the aircraft above 56,000 feet and up to Mach 1.53. The target conditions for reduced-noise supersonic flight are different: 55,000 feet and Mach 1.4.
According to NASA, the acoustic validation phase is now to analyse the sounds produced. The highest speed reached therefore does not, on its own, answer the question of how much noise people perceive on the ground.
Evidence for possible future rules
In the manufacturer’s account, measurements and community acceptance trials are intended to help define noise thresholds based on evidence. Moving from research to any eventual commercial rules depends on those later parts of the programme. The anniversary report describes progress in testing, without announcing the launch of a passenger transport service.