LEGENDARY
X59
Lockheed Martin X-59 Quesst
The Quiet One
“Supersonic without the boom.”
Lockheed Martin Skunk Works · military
NO PHOTO
Length
99 ft 8 in
Wingspan
29 ft 6 in
Max speed
Mach 1.42
Ceiling
55,000 ft
Engines
1x GE F414-GE-100 (22,000 lbf)
Crew
1
Built
1
NASA's one-of-a-kind supersonic demonstrator, built at the Skunk Works in Palmdale to prove a sonic boom can be a thump. A 99-foot needle with no forward window: the pilot flies on a 4K camera. First flight October 28, 2025.
Fun fact
Its target boom is about as loud as a car door closing, roughly 16 times quieter than Concorde's.
How to spot one
A needle nose longer than the rest of the airplane, a tiny cockpit set far aft with no windscreen ahead of it, and a T-tail. NASA white with red and blue trim. Palmdale and Edwards only.
Crews call it
X-59
Sounds like
One GE F414, the Super Hornet's engine, in an airframe a third the weight. Sharp and rising, then gone.
One might be overhead right now.
Bogey turns the The Quiet One from a dot in the sky into a card in your logbook. Coming to iOS and Android.
Get Bogey