AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 321 / 321

Plate 321 of 321 · Modern age · Quiet supersonic research aircraft

Lockheed Martin X-59 QueSST

X-59 NASA 859 (N859NA), painted as Lockheed Martin X-59 QueSST NASA 859, registered N859NA, the only one built, by the Skunk Works at Palmdale, California, which first flew on 28 October 2025 and flies quiet-supersonic research for NASA from the Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards: a single-seat research aircraft about 99 ft 7 in long with a slender nose that takes up about a third of its length, shaped to soften its sonic boom into a quiet thump, a cockpit set far back with side windows but no forward windscreen (the pilot sees ahead through the eXternal Vision System camera), small canards beside the cockpit, a thin swept compound-delta wing, one General Electric F414 engine in a nacelle on top of the rear fuselage, an all-moving tailplane low at the rear and a small T-tail on top of the fin: white upper surfaces with a dark navy underside edged by a thin gold line, a thin red line along the leading edges, light grey undersides to the wing and tail, the NASA logo, ‘859’ and a US flag on the fin, ‘X-59’ on the engine nacelle and ‘N859NA’ and ‘LOCKHEED MARTIN’ on the fuselage, as photographed at Palmdale and Edwards (no X-59 is in a museum; shape from the NASA configuration four-view checked against NASA photographs; the Skunk Works badge, stencils and photo-calibration targets are left off).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as Lockheed Martin X-59 QueSST NASA 859, registered N859NA, the only one built, by the Skunk Works at Palmdale, California, which first flew on 28 October 2025 and flies quiet-supersonic research for NASA from the Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards: a single-seat research aircraft about 99 ft 7 in long with a slender nose that takes up about a third of its length, shaped to soften its sonic boom into a quiet thump, a cockpit set far back with side windows but no forward windscreen (the pilot sees ahead through the eXternal Vision System camera), small canards beside the cockpit, a thin swept compound-delta wing, one General Electric F414 engine in a nacelle on top of the rear fuselage, an all-moving tailplane low at the rear and a small T-tail on top of the fin: white upper surfaces with a dark navy underside edged by a thin gold line, a thin red line along the leading edges, light grey undersides to the wing and tail, the NASA logo, ‘859’ and a US flag on the fin, ‘X-59’ on the engine nacelle and ‘N859NA’ and ‘LOCKHEED MARTIN’ on the fuselage, as photographed at Palmdale and Edwards (no X-59 is in a museum; shape from the NASA configuration four-view checked against NASA photographs; the Skunk Works badge, stencils and photo-calibration targets are left off). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (849 KB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (X-59 (NASA 859)); engine, crew and dimensions are for the X-59 NASA 859 (N859NA) modelled here.

History

The X-59 QueSST

Since 1973 the United States has banned civil aircraft from flying faster than sound over land, because of the sonic boom, and most other countries have done the same. The rule is the main reason Concorde flew almost only over the sea, and why no supersonic airliner has followed it. Research in the 1990s and early 2000s, including NASA’s Shaped Sonic Boom Demonstration with a modified Northrop F-5E in 2003, showed that careful shaping of an aircraft could stop the shock waves from its nose, wings and tail from merging into a single loud double crack, leaving a much softer thump instead.

In April 2018 NASA awarded Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works a contract worth about 247.5 million dollars to build a piloted Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator to prove the idea at full scale. The result, the X-59, is about 99 ft long, with a needle-like nose that takes up nearly a third of that length, small canards, a thin swept wing and a single General Electric F414 engine mounted on top of the fuselage so that the wing shields the ground from its shock waves. To save money it uses parts from existing types: the canopy and ejection seat from a Northrop T-38 and the landing gear from a Lockheed Martin F-16. The long nose leaves no room for a forward windscreen, so the pilot sees ahead through the eXternal Vision System, a camera feeding a high-resolution screen in the cockpit.

The X-59 was rolled out at Palmdale on 12 January 2024 and first flew on 28 October 2025, when NASA test pilot Nils Larson took it from Palmdale to NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base. NASA’s Quesst mission plans to take it supersonic, measure its sonic thump from the air and the ground, and then fly it over a series of American towns to ask residents what they hear. The results are to go to the Federal Aviation Administration and the International Civil Aviation Organization, to help set a noise limit that could replace the outright ban on supersonic flight over land.

This airframe

X-59 NASA 859 (N859NA)

NASA 859The airframe modelled

NASA 859, registered N859NA, is the only X-59 built. It was assembled at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works at Palmdale, California, where it went through ground, engine and taxi tests before its first flight on 28 October 2025, and it now flies research sorties from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards, California. It is not in a museum. The model shows it as photographs of it at Palmdale and Edwards do, on the ground with its gear down: white upper surfaces and fuselage sides over a dark navy underside edged with a thin gold line, light grey under the wing and tail, a thin red line just behind the leading edges of the wing and tailplane, the NASA logo, ‘859’ and a US flag on the fin, ‘X-59’ on the sides of the engine nacelle, and ‘N859NA’ and ‘LOCKHEED MARTIN’ on the fuselage. Its shape comes from NASA’s configuration four-view, checked against NASA photographs; the side view’s height was corrected to the drawing’s own dimension, the hinge lines of the flaps and rudder are estimated, and the Skunk Works badge, stencils and photo-calibration targets are left off.

Where to see one

Not on charge

The only X-59 is flying research sorties from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards, California, and is not in a museum.

All 321 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.