When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.NASA’s “quiet” supersonic X-59 aircraft flew its second flight on March 20, 2026, near NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. | Credit: NASA/Jim RossNASA’s new supersonic X-59 jet took to the skies for the second time ever on Friday (March 20), but it didn’t stay up for long.The potentially revolutionary X-59 landed just nine minutes after takeoff on Friday, its sophomore effort cut short by a warning light in the cockpit.”Despite the early landing, this is a good day for the team. We collected more data, and the pilot landed safely,” Cathy Bahm, project manager for NASA’s Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, said in a statement on Friday. “We’re looking forward to getting back to flight as soon as possible.”AdvertisementAdvertisementCivilian supersonic flights — those that go faster than the speed of sound — have been prohibited over the United States since 1973 due to the disruptive effects of sonic booms. (The speed of sound at sea level is about 761 mph, or 1,225 kph).NASA hopes to help change that with the X-59, the centerpiece of its Quesst (“Quiet Supersonic Technology”) mission. The long-nosed plane is designed to generate mere thumps rather than booms when it goes supersonic.Using Quesst information, “new data-driven acceptable noise thresholds related to supersonic flight over land can be established, which would open the doors to new commercial cargo and passenger markets to provide faster-than-sound air travel,” NASA officials wrote in a description of the program.The 100-foot-long (30.5 meters) X-59 flew for the first time on Oct. 29, 2025, taking off from Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California. (The X-59 is a joint effort of NASA and Lockheed Martin.) That 67-minute debut went well, according to NASA: Pilot Nils Larson took it to a maximum altitude of 12,000 feet (3,660 m) and a top speed of 230 mph (370 kph), “precisely as planned.”Advertisem …
