NASA’s experimental X-59 is travelling from California to Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with its latest reported stop in Birmingham, Alabama, on 29 October. The cross-country flight began on the anniversary of the aircraft’s first flight, on 28 October 2025. The move comes ahead of NASA’s MAX POWER aerospace event at Kennedy, scheduled for 7 and 8 November; the agency has not confirmed the aircraft’s arrival time or whether it will fly or be displayed there.
The X-59 departed Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth at 9:48 a.m. CDT and landed at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport at 11:03 a.m., after stops in El Paso and Fort Worth. Birmingham was the latest confirmed stop as the aircraft continued east toward Florida.
NASA’s Quesst programme is developing and testing technology intended to reduce the perceived noise of supersonic flight. Since its maiden flight, the X-59 has completed 40 additional flights, reaching more than 56,000 feet and speeds of up to Mach 1.53. NASA plans an acoustic-validation phase to analyse the sounds produced by the aircraft, with the broader aim of informing future noise standards for commercial supersonic flight over land.