Breaking the sound barrier was once a terrifying feat of pilot prowess
In short: In 1955, breaking the sound barrier was a dangerous milestone for aviation pioneers. Today, NASA is revisiting that frontier with the X-59, an experimental aircraft designed to turn the violent sonic boom into a quiet thump, potentially paving the way for a new era of commercial supersonic travel.
Supersonic aviation truly commenced on August 20, 1955, when US Air Force Colonel Horace A. Hanes established the initial global supersonic velocity benchmark. Flying a North American Aviation F-100C Super Sabre, Hanes and other early pioneers tested the terrifying dynamics of the sound barrier, providing essential data that helped scientists understand superfast speeds.
While supersonic travel is now a known phenomenon, it remains a rare feat of engineering. Modern efforts, such as NASA’s Quesst mission, seek to refine this capability. A primary goal of the mission is to enable commercial supersonic flight over land by solving the problem of noise. Current supersonic aircraft create loud sonic booms, but NASA's X-59 is designed to produce only a quiet thump.
A major breakthrough occurred on June 5, when the X-59 surpassed sonic velocity for the very first time. During this 81-minute flight, the aircraft reached Mach 1.1—roughly 713 mph—at an altitude of 43,400 feet. Test pilot Jim "Clue" Less noted that the flight felt so smooth that the only indication of supersonic speed came from the plane's instruments.
The next phase of testing will involve more intense conditions. NASA aims to fly the X-59 at Mach 1.4 (approximately 925 mph) at an altitude of 55,000 feet. These upcoming mission flights will occur over several U.S. communities to gather ground-level data on noise levels, helping to determine if quiet supersonic flight is viable for the public.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Supersonic Firsts
- Also: NASA’s X-59 Flies Supersonic for First Time - NASA
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