Test pilot Roy Martin: “Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier. We just fixed it.” NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft, developed at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works in Palmdale, California, has fired up its engine for the first time. These engine-run tests start at low power and allow the X-59 team to verify that the aircraft’s systems are working together properly while powered by its own engine. The X-59 is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission, which seeks to demonstrate how the X-59 can fly supersonic without generating loud sonic booms and then survey what people hear when it flies overhead. Public reaction to the quieter sonic "thumps," which should be no louder than a car door shutting, will be shared with regulators who will then consider writing new sound-based rules to lift the ban on faster-than-sound flight over land. First flight of the X-59 is scheduled for 2025.