Watch NASA Inch Closer To Its Sonic Thump Theory With The X-59’s First Supersonic Flight

Air travel could once again move at the speed of sound. On Friday, while we were counting down the hours until the weekend, NASA took to the skies with its supersonic plane, the X-59, towards its attempt at a quieter “Sonic” boom, or rather, a “Sonic thump.” Results were fairly optimistic.

You can actually see if the test worked for yourself, as NASA shared the footage from the X-59’s initial supersonic flight on Saturday. It’ll only take about 44 seconds of your time, which is shorter than the time it’ll take to read the rest of this article.

The video, featuring the futuristic-looking, angular X-59, was rather uneventful in the on-screen “action” department. NASA counts the mach speeds up until the X-59 hits supersonic, which you know by the new, suddenly louder voice saying “supersonic.” 

Total flight time was much longer than the 44 second video — the X-59 was in the air, accompanied by a chase plane, for about 81 minutes, with NASA test pilot Jim “Clue” Less taking the plane to its top speed of Mach 1.1, or 713 mph.

According to NASA, the X-59 has taken to the sky 16 times since its first test flight last October. The project’s crew has since continued to increase parameters in X-59’s speed and altitude, slowly expanding its flight envelope until its first Mach test last week.

Jared Isaacman, NASA Administrator said the agency has more flights planned in the coming days to bring X-59 to Mach 1.4 or 925 mph at an altitude of 55,000 feet. When and if NASA and the X-59 reach that specific benchmark, they’ll be cleared for the next trial of testing, which is taking supersonic flights over US communities to “gather data about how people may perceive its quiet thump.”

Success of the X-59’s trials “part II” could determine the trajectory of supersonic flying returning in a commercial aspect for the first time in over 20 years. Remember the Concorde did provide supersonic travel from 1976-2003, but it could only fly from the coasts, as it was banned from flying over the actual United States.

Realistically, though, supersonic air travel could return as soon as tomorrow if we had the resources ready to go thanks to the Cheeto in Chief President signing an executive order that lifted its 52-year ban of flight over the country. But the purpose of the X-59 is to make faster air travel possible, without continually rattling the people of the continental U.S. And to be fair, we’ve been through enough already.