NASA’s supersonic X-59 jet quietly soars over California desert in first test flight

NASA's experimental quiet supersonic X-59 Quesst aircraft takes off from Runway 7 at Palmdale USAF Plant 42 in Palmdale, Calif., on Tuesday.

NASA’s X-59 supersonic-but-quiet jet soared over the Southern California desert on Tuesday in the first test flight of an experimental aircraft designed to break the sound barrier with little noise, paving the way for faster commercial air travel.

The sleek aircraft, built for NASA by aerospace contractor Lockheed Martin LMT-N , took off about an hour after sunrise from a runway at Plant 42 of the company’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, about 100 km north of Los Angeles.

After a steep climb over sod fields just east of the runway, the plane was seen banking to the north on a trajectory toward Edwards Air Force Base, where it landed safely