Overview
- The experimental aircraft flew subsonically for about an hour over the California desert and landed safely, marking the start of its flight-test campaign.
- The maiden sortie ran from Palmdale to NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards, lasting 1 hour 7 minutes with a top speed of about 385 km/h at roughly 3,600 meters.
- Engineers used the flight to verify core systems such as instruments, flight controls, autopilot, engines, and air-data sensing.
- Lockheed Martin said the flight went exactly as planned, with subsequent missions set to expand the envelope toward supersonic speeds.
- Built under NASA’s Quesst program, the X-59 aims to cut the sonic boom to a low, car‑door-like thump to pave the way for future civilian supersonic operations over land.