Regulations and Government
NASA To Start Quiet Boom Flights over Galveston in Fall
NASA’s F/A-18 testbed will be flown using a “quiet supersonic dive maneuver” to “aim quiet sonic thumps at a specific area.”
Starting in November, NASA’s F/A-18 testbed will be flown using a “quiet supersonic dive maneuver” to aim "quiet sonic thumps" at a community over Galveston to gauge residents' perception of the boom. (Photo: NASA)
Starting in November, NASA’s F/A-18 testbed will be flown using a “quiet supersonic dive maneuver” to aim "quiet sonic thumps" at a community over Galveston to gauge residents' perception of the boom. (Photo: NASA)

To prepare for community overflights under its silent supersonic aircraft test program with the X-59 starting in 2023, NASA will fly an F/A-18 as it breaks through the speed of sound over Galveston, Texas, beginning in November. NASA’s F/A-18 testbed will be flown using a “quiet supersonic dive maneuver” to “aim quiet sonic thumps at a specific area,” a procedure that the agency first tested in 2011 over Edwards Air Force Base.