How NASA’s X-59 recycled decades-old plane parts to make silent supersonic flight possible

NASA’s X-59 Quesst experimental aircraft has taken a major leap forward, firing up its engine for the first time. This marks a crucial and final milestone as the team prepares the first runway and flight tests that will lead to a long series of trials that aim to prove what computational simulations have already proven: that supersonic flight can happen without the deafening sonic boom that marred and eventually grounded aircrafts like the Concorde. The X-59’s goal—to transform that...