The 25th X-59 flight on Aug. 21 lasted 72 minutes from Edwards, California, taking the quiet supersonic jet to Mach 1.2 and 49,000ft and clearing it for acoustic evaluation later this year.
NASA said the aircraft’s real-world behavior has closely matched digital-twin simulations and wind-tunnel predictions, with stable handling, expected structural loads and no unexpected instability or excessive vibration.
Testing has already expanded from basic takeoff-and-landing checks to much of the flight envelope, and the X-59 reached its target cruise condition of Mach 1.4 and 55,000ft relatively early in the program.
The next phase will use ground- and air-based instruments to measure the X-59’s sonic thumps, shifting the mission from proving it flies as designed to proving it sounds as intended.
That data is meant to support future rules for commercial supersonic flight over land, the central goal of NASA’s Quesst mission.