Does the X-59 experimental aircraft fly at supersonic speeds?

The X-59 experimental aircraft can fly really fast, supersonic speeds mean it goes faster than sound.

Imagine you're on a playground swing. When you push yourself harder and go higher, you move much quicker than when you just gently swing back and forth. The X-59 is like that super-fast swing, it moves so quickly that it can actually outpace the sound traveling through the air around it.

Think of a loud alarm clock. That sound travels through the air at about 768 miles per hour (1,235 kilometers per hour). If the X-59 flies faster than that, like going past the alarm clock before it even finishes ringing, then it’s flying supersonically.

Flying supersonically helps scientists learn how to make planes go really fast without making a huge boom (which happens when a plane breaks the sound barrier). The X-59 is helping them test quieter, faster travel for the future, like if you could zoom from one city to another in minutes instead of hours! The X-59 experimental aircraft can fly really fast, supersonic speeds mean it goes faster than sound.

Imagine you're on a playground swing. When you push yourself harder and go higher, you move much quicker than when you just gently swing back and forth. The X-59 is like that super-fast swing, it moves so quickly that it can actually outpace the sound traveling through the air around it.

Think of a loud alarm clock. That sound travels through the air at about 768 miles per hour (1,235 kilometers per hour). If the X-59 flies faster than that, like going past the alarm clock before it even finishes ringing, then it’s flying supersonically.