Test Pilots Pose with X-59 Research Aircraft

NASA test pilots Nils Larson (left) and Jim “Clue” Less (right), and Lockheed Martin test pilot Dan “Dog” Canin pose with the newly-painted X-59 as it sits on the ramp at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California. The X-59 is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission, which seeks to solve one of the major barriers to supersonic flight over land, currently banned in the United States, by making sonic booms quieter.

NASA test pilots Nils Larson (left) and Jim “Clue” Less (right), and Lockheed Martin test pilot Dan “Dog” Canin pose with the newly-painted X-59 as it sits on the ramp at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California. The X-59 is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission, which seeks to solve one of the major barriers to supersonic flight over land, currently banned in the United States, by making sonic booms quieter.

Photographer NASA/Steve Freeman
Album X-59_Rollout
Location AFRC
NASAX-59Low Boom Flight DemonstratorQuesstSupersonicMachSonic BoomQuiet Supersonic TechnologyX-planesFlightAeronauticsLockheed MartinSpeedAFRCArmstrong Flight Research CenterLangley Research CenterAmes Research CenterGlenn Research CenterSonic ThumpCommercial Supersonic TechnologyTechnologyAirplanes