X-59, designed and built by Lockheed Martin, is made to create a sound about as loud as a car door closing, 75 Perceived Level decibel (PLdB), instead of a sonic boom.

Engineers designed the plane’s elongated body and swept wing to minimise one of the largest hurdles facing the return of jets flying faster than the speed of sound: the sonic boom created when an aircraft breaks the sound barrier.

For its part, GE Aviation is supplying the F414-GE-100, a new single-engine variant of its fighter jet engine the F414 used in the F/A-18 Super Hornet.

The engine will provide the X-59 with its traditional 22,000 pounds of thrust, while also integrating single-engine safety features.

The ultimate goal of the X-59 program is to gather enough data on supersonic flight to help open a new era of commercial aviation — with coast-to-coast flight times cut in half.

Data collected in X-59 test flights, which NASA and Lockheed Martin have scheduled for 2021, will be passed along to the FAA and international regulators to help rewrite the rules governing supersonic flight over land.

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