How NASA’s X-59 recycled decades-old plane parts to make silent supersonic flight possible

The new supersonic plane breaks the mold with a radical new shape and digital cockpit, but it relies on ancient parts to make it all happen.

NASA’s X-59 Quesst experimental aircraft has taken a major leap forward, firing up its engine for the first time. This marks a crucial and final milestone as the team prepares the first runway and flight tests that will lead to a long series of trials that aim to prove what computational simulations have already proven: that supersonic flight can happen without the deafening sonic boom that marred and eventually grounded aircrafts like the Concorde.