The X-59 Quesst: On a Mission to Change Air Travel 

Before they were banned, there used to be sonic booms over the Midwest almost on a weekly basis. They ranged from "distant thunder" to window rattling, chest thumping booms.

I remember in 2000 i went to New York JFK airport with my father to pick up family members and we were able to witness the concord come in for a landing i would never forget that day. RIP DAD

The Sonic corridor at Edwards Air Force Base. I grew up hearing and feeling sonic booms almost my whole life. I actually miss it.

X-59 walks into a bar. Bartender says, "Why the long face?"

I love tall streets around narrow buildings, Simon! I could see why that would amplify sonic booms!

Let's be realistic, a proven low boom super-sonic concept would be extremely valuable to the Defense Industry. Quiet super-sonic and stealth.

I lived in Florida during the shuttle days and it did produce a sonic boom when it landed in Canaveral. I lived about 30 miles from the launch pad and heard several real sonic booms.

Also... i remember being a kid and hearing the sonic boom of comcorde from a beach in cornwall.... it was amazing

When i was growing up I lived in the channel islands on Guernsey, Concorde used to fly over us quite often but it was at cruising level so while you'd hear the boom it wasn't massively loud.

3:36 "The decision not to show you a sonic boom directly led to you keeping your ear drums" "which is nice"

Heard my first Sonic Boom, at the National Training Center in the Mojave Desert. A pair of F-16s over top of me. I won't forget that double, double crump any time soon. One "boom" from the leading edge, and one from the trailing edge.

Having been born and raised on USAF bases, I've heard my fair share of sonic booms, most memorably from an SR-71 Blackbird during a flyover. Honestly, though, although a sonic boom from an aircraft is quite loud, I've heard/experienced the rumbles of thunder (from lightning) which would drown out an aircraft sonic boom. I don't really have a point for sharing this bit of info, but I thought it might be noteworthy in some capacity.

Dark Tech: The Freak Airplane with a Mach Wave Silencer. Yo. This video is damn amazing. Gives me the chills still.

Of all the topics Simon has covered the “we don’t have a supersonic airliner” theme seems to be a really big deal and sore spot for him (and or the writers).

Interesting project and design. The idea is to have any "boom" go upwards, hence the ending on top etc. Hopefully the smooth underside mitigates any shockwave travelling downwards, hence the sonic "thud".

I lived in an area with multiple military airports back then. They always flew over our house, breaking the sound barrier, crazy high speed low passes and so on. I miss it so much. The unexpected plane flying over your house at Mach 1 + so low you can almost see the markings. It was so fucking amazing as a kid and i would gladly have it back. My father worked at the airport, my mother was there all the time. We all loved it. Welp, now we cant have cool stuff anymore.

Man I havent watched a Megaprojects video in a while! This channel was my intro in the Simon Whistler-verse, and this was a great video to get back into Megaprojects. I have since divulged into the brain blaze basement and haven’t left since. Would the basement recommend 10/10

1:35 - Chapter 1 - Design & development 6:35 - Chapter 2 - Specs & capabilities 10:35 - Chapter 3 - Big implications

Love the videos!! Keep up the awesome content!!!

I had to go back and check what Simon said..."tall streets around narrow buildings..." I had to chuckle when I listened to it the second time. Simon has always impressed me with his ability to go through lengthy and complex dialogues flawlessly so this was an interesting faux pa (at least I think it was a mistake).

I grew up in Clapham, Bedfordshire, the village that housed many of the technicians who worked at RAE Bedford, we had the wind tunnels and experimental airfield that pioneered a lot of aerospace technology. (Blind landing, vertical take off & landing, incl. the SToVL ski jump, and nearly all of the Concorde R&D.) The cover photo on my Ordinary level physics textbook - Concord pressure waves in a supersonic wind tunnel - was taken by a school friends dad. And for some of the older American viewers, the airfield that Glenn Miller departed from on hos fateful last flight.

Anyone who lived in Southern California during the 1980s and 1990s has heard sonic booms whenever the space shuttle was coming in for a landing at Edwards. I'd imagine it's the same for Florida residents for when the shuttle landed there.

There is no financial incentive for airlines to go supersonic (at least not for the masses). The goal is to squeeze as many people into a metal tube as possible and not to get people to their destination faster. This is also why airliners rarely fly at their top speed just like most of us drive our cars at max revs. It simply isn't efficient. A sonic boom also isn't a singular event, but rather follows the plane while it is going supersonic. This supersonic tech will likely be implemented in private jets and therefore become a status symbol for the rich (like we need any more of that). What will likely come for the masses is the flying wing concept introduced by Boeing a few months ago. It makes more sense from an economic and environmental standpoint

Whenever there is an Edwards Airshow they usually open with a Sonic Boom, the last one in 2022 they also simulated the Soft Sonic Boom the X-59 will create it's more of a Woosh..

The Concord flew at Mach 2. This only is around 1.2.... Just saying... Hopefully future designs will be able to match or even exceed the Concord

With the nose extended so far out the commercial jetliner version might end up being the plane where the nose is in one postal and the tail in another postal code when parked. :^)

I grew up near St. Louis, MO in the 1960s, so yes, I *have* heard sonic booms because back then McDonnell-Douglas was still making planes and the local air force reserve was flying and occasionally creating sonic booms.

This is a really cool looking plane 🤩

This video helped me sleep earlier. Thanks

Interestingly, serious research into actually reducing the pressure wave buildup that causes the sonic boom didn't really start until the late 1980's, when aerodynamic researchers at places like NASA Langley were able to get access to something like a Cray-2 supercomputer, at that time just about the fastest computer in the world. You needed that computing power just to do the computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation needed to shape the airplane to reduce the sonic boom. By 2008, supercomputer technology had advanced enough that they were able to compute a test plane very close to what the shape of the X-59 became.

There was some here in the 90s or well not were im now but of the nothern sea, i think at higher altitude it was still always a shock

I hope it makes a stop at EAA Airventure in Oshkosh, WI this year.

You can witness a sonic boom on an Airshow. At least if you’re Swiss, I don’t know if the display is open for foreigners. You have to climb 800 meters up on a mountain, where the annual „Fliegerschiessen“ (demonstration on the shooting range for planes with live rounds and visitors. Our national display team is also present there with their F5‘s. And it’s there where I heard the words for the first time: „Ladies and gentlemen, please brace yourself for the fly-by of the solist number 1 at max speed, MACH 1,7!“ And it was as loud and glorious as you all imagine.

I used to live near The Kennedy Space Center during the hay days of the Space Shuttle. I have heard the double bang of it returning more than once.

Crazy that the sonic boom on the Concorde was continuous, and not just at the moment it went supersonic. So the entire time it's going that fast, everyone underneath is right path would hear the deafening boom.

9:44 put a middle aged man in front of a touch screen and he'll always use his middle finger to operate it 🤣.

Puts a whole new meaning on "here comes the BOOM".

First time I recall experiencing a sonic boom was during the Yom Kippur war in 1973 in Israel as a kid. Also the last time.

Super Nice👍🙏🙏🙏🙏

please more

I'm old enough to remember when sonic booms weren't uncommon over the plains and small towns of central Kansas. Totally unexpected last fall there was a very loud sonic boom. With about ½ of the population is not old enough to remember a sonic boom so the Chief of police and the Sheriff received so many calls their phone system was unable to handle that many calls. A few hours later the Sheriff called the local radio stations and put out the word that he had contacted air traffic controllers and confirmed that it was in fact a sonic boom. So as of the fall of 23 they still have work to do to make it quite.

If Kelly Johnson was still in charge of Skunk Works , the X59 would have been flying in 2017 and would have come in under budget.

I may have seen this plane very recently. I saw what looked like a white plane going much faster and what looked like a steeper ascent angle than usual, but I didn’t hear any booms that I recall. I live in Louisville Kentucky so I’m used to seeing different planes, but it just struck me as a bit odd, so I’m curious to hear back on this and where the test flights happened

I was living in Chicago when the shuttle reentered and caused a huge sonic boom probably early 2000 area.

Literally just found out about this and of course fact boy has me covered

I live a few miles from Norfolk naval base. Being outside when the jets accidentally cause a sonic boom over the Atlantic is wild. We all just look at eachother & then start looking for the statement from navy lol

You should get together with B1M to do a whole episode on the societal impacts of tall streets and narrow buildings. No doubt they are causing global warming. 🙂

Hey, worst case scenario, someone gets a free X-59 cabin door.

air show 1968 adelaide sth australia when it was over three mirages flew low over leaving crowd with a sudden boom

First rule in just about anything nothing goes according to plan. It's a nice experimental plane, and nothing is going to make sonic booms go away or be less noisy than they are.

Noise from a sonic boom is one and done. Try living next to a four lane dragstrip like Vegas with nitro burning dragsters and funny cars for a weekend. Makes a boom from a aircraft leaving Nellis for TTR a welcome change lol

04.00 "Tall streets around narrow buildings"??? Good Grief!!

This guy is so busy... dang

Geez I see one video in my recommended and say we'll I'll watch just that one, next thing I know I'm 6 hours down a rabbit hole

She is so beautiful!!! Bring back the Concorde ✊️

Why don't they take a cue from noise cancelling tech from consumer headphones and ear buds. Build in some huge or a ton of small speakers on the outside of the plane to play the same sound in the opposite polarity to cancel out most of the noise produced by "breaking" the sound barrier.

X-59 is a good example of what NASA, as NACA, was originally set up for. For original basic research. Not for 'managing' the launch industry.

Would you do videos on hyper, super and old school muscle cars? Imports too, the older Nissan fairlady Z was twin turbo with 4 wheel steering, early 90's Nissan GTR34 or 4 wheel steering on some pick up trucks?

Boom, shake shake shake the room 😅

"Can't do it without you, BAE" is a sentiment that can be said by all Americans😝

Missed opportunity. They should have called it "Swordfish"

I dunno, what killed the concord was price: flying 500 people at 600mph is just cheaper, more efficient and easier to build than flying half that at Mach 1.5. And any breakthrough in technology allowing the latter will likely be more effectively applied to the former.

The design reminds me of the Japanese bullet trains

could you do a video about mirage f1 please

9:27 I have something I used to collect as a kid because I realised that people tend to throw them away and so they become rare…an official Concorde Napkin with the subtle little Concorde Logo. Everything was special on that plane including the meal service. So I asked them to keep a Napkin folded safe for me. I genuinely would love to know if my logic (that people either ignore or throw away Napkins, making any Napkin with an identifier like a logo more and more rare regardless or even helped by more people actually using them). If anyone is involved in buying and selling memorabilia; if you have any idea how easy or hard they are to get. Either way (if anyone actually happens to be on the market I’m not selling any of the Concorde stuff my Grandparents gave me…Not yet. They made everything to have that “I’m special” feel to it with regard to the Concorde. The Tickets, the Napkins and (I don’t know) maybe the toilet roll?

Fair enough indeed Pam.

That needle nose is the first thought ,of more then 1or 2 cm wobble and at super sonic 😮. That would be enough to tear it off or ground the airplane . 😮

Simon I love your videos and I respect what you do but the problem with supersonic flight is not the sonic boom. We do not have the metals to make these planes last to make them economical,

I miss sonic booms to be perfectly honest. I lived in an area that was so sparsely habited that we’d hear multiple sonic booms a day up until about 1988/90

4:00 tall streets and narrow buildings? Lol

Tall Streets around narrow buildings Simon? slip of the tongue that didn't get catch in post?

I'm pretty sure the Quesst does not have 2 sets of canards, just one and some small, standard style, air sensors further forward.

My dad felt a sonic boom from an airshow in 1969, Glass shattered for 8 blocks and the parade the next day had to be canceled.

I live near an airforce base. I 100% heard quite a few sonic booms in my life. Until about the late 90's when one jackass went overboard and did a low altitude sonic boom right near where a high ranking politician lived and busted a load of windows. Since then, nope, I think they are still allowed to do low altitude sonic booms, but only in very specific areas. Areas which are quite rare over here as there's only a few parks with enough unpopulated land that apply. So now only deer and wolves get the crap scared out of them.

Having been stationed at Holloman AFB for the last 3 years I can say sonic booms can get very annoying 🤣

12:23 how many takes was that?

The problem is going to that airliners are looking for cheaper, more fuel-efficient aircraft (especially as the issue of climate change becomes ever more urgent), which is something a supersonic aircraft just _isn't_ . As with the Concorde, the business case just isn't there. That aside, advances in science and technology are always welcome as we don't know what else we might learn until we do.

The plane looks like it came out of Ace Combat, possibly some kind of prototype Belkan witchcraft.

The X-59 didn't roll anywhere on Jan 12th. It was introduced in the exact same way the B-21 was. I look forward to a few more windows that imply that it is nearer to changing air travel.

I totally thought the extra s was a typo until a minute in

Anyone else catch Tall streets around Narrow buildings? I flip words like that all the time too.

Simon, you are quite prolific when it comes to producing quality content. Impressive

This looks like some sneaky military plane project. Transferring special forces around the world in a hurry sort of machine.

Anything to do with sounds and vibrations I'm really interested in for some reason. Maybe because humans are pretty much running on vibrations.

Is Simon's delivery and vocal tone, sort of...ASMR?

As long as Boeing is not involved it should be safe.

I noticed that Imperial units of measurement are used in this video. Have we Americans browbeat Simon into this decision?

Nothing cooler than watching an F-18 break the sound barrier doing a close pass on the port side of an aircraft carrier

Even if successful, I don't see the odds in favor of another large commercial venture in to such an aircraft. It wasn't just the sonic booms that were a problem. These are high performance, high altitude aircraft---almost 15 thousand feet higher than normal commercial planes usually fly. You've got higher fuel costs and maintenance costs which equal higher fares. This was reflected in Concorde fares which were often thousands of dollars. I could see the market doing smaller planes, especially if they were corporate/charter type.

I live just south of the BGUSAFBG. Or the Barry Goldwater United States Air Force Bombing Range, in southwest Arizona. Yesterday , we heard/felt them bombing the range multiple times. Only one Sonic boom though. We hear the A-10 Warthog firing its cannon, Brrrrtttttttt at least three days per week. And the F-16’s and F/A-18’s break the sound barrier dozens of times per month. The bombs were baBOOOOM!!!!!! The sonic booms are more like BABABOOOOOM!!!!!!!! Every year, the USAF, has to pay for windows for many of our older houses. About 15 years ago, we had a devastating fire from a USAF flair, it caused a Big fire that caused us to lose power and many folks had to evacuate to Tucson (140 miles away) because they couldn’t breathe. The USAF denied responsibility and blamed the fire on the migrants. But they told the truth later on.

Faster than the speed of sound airliner!!! Nobody could talk to me on board anymore??

Then there is Hermeus and the hypersonic transport they are working on.

Sonic Thud lol 😁

what needs to happen is to just get rid of the bans on sonic booms...the impacts were grossly overestimated...speed and saving time is the most important thing...as time is the one thing that you can just go get more of...

What’s the electronics fail safe, a periscope? If the system ever fails😳

A wonderful introduction video about megaprojet X -59 Quest super sonic travel plane..designed by participants ( Lockheed & NASA). Thanks for sharing

An airliner based on this would be longer than the runway

9:16 Can-ard, not can-yard…

"If it looks right, it flies right" - that was said before this monstrosity was built. Behold, the X-59 Platypus!

"Can yard"?