NASA's revolutionary X-59 jet is steadily progressing toward its first flight test after completing a set of engine run tests at the storied Lockheed Martin Skunk Works facility in California.

NASA engineers fired the engines on the X-59 research aircraft in advance of planned test flights to determine if the aircraft can reduce sonic booms and make supersonic flight over land quieter.

NASA’s supersonic X-59 aircraft has taken another critical step toward flight, as its engine was powered up successfully on October 30. Developed by Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works for NASA's Quesst mission,

A try called Quesst Vid The aircraft NASA hopes will usher in a new generation of transport that's supersonic but also relatively quiet has fired up its engines for the first time as a test.… The X-59 Quiet Supersonic Technology (Quesst) airplane has been designed to generate what the agency refers to as a shaped sonic boom,