Lockheed Martin X-59 Quesst

For the Russian cruise missile ("Х-59 Овод" in cyrillic), see Kh-59.
"QueSST" redirects here. For QSST, see SAI Quiet Supersonic Transport.
X-59 Quesst
The X-59 on the ramp at Skunk Works
General information
TypeExperimental supersonic aircraft
National originUnited States
ManufacturerLockheed Martin
StatusIn testing
Primary userNASA
History
First flightOctober 28, 2025

The Lockheed Martin X-59 Quesst ("Quiet SuperSonic Technology"), sometimes styled QueSST, is an American experimental supersonic aircraft under development by Skunk Works for NASA's Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator project. Preliminary design started in February 2016, with the X-59 originally planned to begin flight testing in 2021. After repeated delays, it began flight testing in late October 2025.

It is expected to cruise at Mach 1.42 (1,510 km/h; 937 mph) at an altitude of 55,000 ft (16,800 m). It is designed to create only a low 75 effective perceived noise level (EPNdB) thump in order to re-evaluate the viability of supersonic transport, since one of the main reasons previous supersonic transports (viz. Concorde) were retired was due to their extremely loud supersonic booms.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.