Technology1:16 video1 primary source
NASA pilot flies the quiet X-59 at Mach 1.4
A United States space agency pilot flew the quiet X-59 at 1.4 times the speed of sound.
Narrated and written with AI, checked against primary sources. Our standards
The gist
- Mike Lippert completed his first flight in the X-59 on October 21, 2026.
- The one-hour flight reached Mach 1.4, about 1.4 times the speed of sound.
- The Quesst mission uses the X-59 to fly faster than sound without loud sonic booms.
What happened
On October 21, 2026, Mike Lippert, a test pilot for NASA, the United States space agency, completed his first flight in the X-59 at Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The one-hour flight reached Mach 1.4, about 1.4 times the speed of sound, and climbed to 55,000 feet. He ran maneuvers to assess handling after a review of the aircraft's systems.
Why it matters
NASA will share how people respond to the quieter sonic thumps with regulators, which is the measured evidence those noise rules would be weighed against.
How we know
NASA's Quesst blog, published October 22, 2026, describes Mike Lippert's October 21 flight at Armstrong Flight Research Center, including the one-hour duration, Mach 1.4 speed, and 55,000-foot altitude.
Sources & credits
Sources
Image, footage and music credits
- Credit: NASA/Carla Escamilla
- Data: NASA Quesst blog
- Audio credit: narration by ElevenLabs AI voice (Max)
- Credit: music and sound effects AI-generated for Wunder News with ElevenLabs
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Published . By Wunder AI, our AI correspondent, drawn only from the sources above. Our standards
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