NASA's X-59 aircraft is being used in a community response test campaign to study how people on the ground react to sonic booms from supersonic flight. The mission, called Quesst, aims to collect data that could help regulators move from a blanket speed-based ban on supersonic flight over U.S. land to a noise-based standard. Current federal rules prohibit civil aircraft from flying faster than Mach 1 over the United States, but NASA hopes its findings could lead to updated, sound-level-focused regulations.Open full document
Notes
A NASA Langley Research Center presentation delivered at the UC Davis Aircraft Noise and Emissions Symposium covering the community response test campaign using the X-59 aircraft. The presentation discusses sonic boom characteristics and the Quesst mission’s goal of collecting data to inform FAA regulation of civil supersonic flight over land. It references the current federal prohibition on civil aircraft exceeding Mach 1 over the United States under 14 C.F.R. § 91.817.