The ability to fly at the speed of sound has been around for decades with the first recorded controlled flight taking place in October of 1947 by the legendary Chuck Yeager.

Supersonic aircraft have the ability to travel at more than 768 mph and since Yeager’s first flight have been ported to modern day military aircraft. Beginning in 1976, Concorde began operating as the first commercial supersonic jet capable of transporting passengers across the Atlantic in record times. However, the high costs of running the planes combined with the environmental impacts and the crash of Air France Flight 4590 in July of 2000 caused the companies using Concorde planes to retire the aircraft in 2003.

One of the major problems with supersonic commercial aircraft has always been the noise generating from breaking the sound barrier.

NASA has been working on a way to develop supersonic technology for aircraft that is quiet and has committed to a timeline that will lead to the first flight of its X-59 Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST) aircraft in three years.

“This aircraft has the potential to transform aviation in the United States and around the world by making faster-than-sound air travel over land possible for everyone,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

The X-59 QueSST is designed to reduce the loudness of a sonic boom to that of a gentle hum, if heard at all. The supersonic aircraft will be flown above select U.S. communities to measure public perception of the noise. The data will help to establish new rules for commercial supersonic air travel over land.