Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate

After years of design, development, and testing, NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft took to the skies for the first time Oct. 28, marking a historic moment for the field of aeronautics research and the agency’s Quesst mission. The X-59, designed to fly at supersonic speeds and reduce the sound of loud sonic booms to […]

Posted November 20, 2025

Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate

2025-2026 DWU: High School Engineering Challenge

2025-2026 DWU: High School Engineering Challenge Challenge Materials Challenge Materials The 2025 Challenge Materials are coming soon. Register now to get copies as soon as they are released.

Posted September 26, 2025

Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate

2025-2026 DWU: Middle School Aviation Challenge

2025-2026 DWU: Middle School Aviation Challenge Challenge Theme AgAir: Integrating UAS into the Agriculture Industry The agricultural industry is an important part of life in the US and around the world by providing food, fuel, economic development, and more.

Posted September 26, 2025

Aeronautics

Advanced Air Mobility

Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate

Air Traffic Management - Exploration

Air Traffic Solutions

Ames Research Center

Drones & You

NASA, Partners Push Forward with Remotely Piloted Airspace Integration

NASA and its partners recently tested a tool for remotely piloted operations that could enable operators to transport people and goods more efficiently within urban areas. The team’s goal is to ensure that when these remotely piloted aircraft – including electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles (eVTOLs) – take to the skies, air traffic cont

Posted September 16, 2025

Armstrong Flight Research Center

Advanced Air Vehicles Program

Aeronautics

Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate

Ames Research Center

Glenn Research Center

Langley Research Center

Low Boom Flight Demonstrator

Quesst (X-59)

Supersonic Flight

NASA’s X-59 Moves Toward First Flight at Speed of Safety

As NASA’s one-of-a-kind X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft approaches first flight, its team is mapping every step from taxi and takeoff to cruising and landing – and their decision-making is guided by safety. First flight will be a lower-altitude loop at about 240 mph to check system integration, kicking off a phase of flight testing […]

Posted September 12, 2025

Aeronautics

Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate

Low Boom Flight Demonstrator

Quesst (X-59)

Quesst: The Vehicle

Supersonic Flight

X-59 Model Tested in Japanese Supersonic Wind Tunnel

Researchers from NASA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) recently tested a scale model of the X-59 experimental aircraft in a supersonic wind tunnel located in Chofu, Japan, to assess the noise audible underneath the aircraft. The test was an important milestone for NASA’s one-of-a-kind X-59, which is designed to fly faster than

Posted July 11, 2025

Aeronautics

Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate

Aerosciences Evaluation Test Capabilities

Ames Research Center

Flight Innovation

Glenn Research Center

Langley Research Center

Transformational Tools Technologies

NASA Advances Pressure Sensitive Paint Research Capability

Many of us grew up using paint-by-number sets to create beautiful color pictures. For years now, NASA engineers studying aircraft and rocket designs in wind tunnels have flipped that childhood pastime, using computers to generate images from “numbers-by-paint” – pressure sensitive paint (PSP), that is.

Posted July 3, 2025

Armstrong Flight Research Center

Advanced Air Vehicles Program

Aeronautics

Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate

Hypersonic Technology

NASA Tech to Measure Heat, Strain in Hypersonic Flight

A NASA system designed to measure temperature and strain on high-speed vehicles is set to make its first flights at hypersonic speeds – greater than Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound – when mounted to two research rockets launching this summer. Technicians in the Environmental Laboratory at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center […]

Posted June 18, 2025

Armstrong Flight Research Center

Aeronautics

Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate

Ames Research Center

Glenn Research Center

Integrated Aviation Systems Program

Langley Research Center

Low Boom Flight Demonstrator

Quesst (X-59)

Quesst: The Vehicle

Supersonic Flight

NASA F-15s Validate Tools for Quesst Mission

High over the Mojave Desert, two NASA F-15 research jets made a series of flights throughout May to validate tools designed to measure and record the shock waves that will be produced by the agency’s X-59 quiet supersonic experimental aircraft. The F-15s, carrying the recording tools, flew faster than the speed of sound, matching the […]

Posted June 10, 2025

Ames Research Center

Aeronautics

Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate

Air Traffic Control Labs

Air Traffic Management - Exploration

Air Traffic Solutions

Drones & You

FutureFlight Central

NASA’s Moffett Federal Airfield Hosts Boeing Digital Taxi Tests

New technology tested by an industry partner at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley could improve how commercial planes taxi to and from gates to runways, making operations safer and more efficient on the surfaces of airports. Airport taxiways are busy.

Posted May 22, 2025