Interview with Peter Coen: Redefining Supersonic Flight with NASA’s X-59

The Mission to Quiet the Boom

When Peter Coen first joined NASA over four decades ago, supersonic flight was synonymous with thunderous noise and regulatory barriers. Today, as Mission Integration Manager for NASA’s Quesst Mission, Coen leads the effort to change that — to make flying faster than sound as quiet as a car door closing.

“The X-59 will be the first aircraft to demonstrate quiet supersonic flight over land,” Coen said. “It’s designed to fly at high speeds without the disruptive sonic boom — instead producing what we call a soft thump.”

That “thump” is the sound of the future — one that could reopen the skies to commercial supersonic travel and transform global connectivity.

How the X-59 Changes Everything

Since Chuck Yeager’s legendary flight in 1947, breaking the sound barrier has been both an engineering triumph and an acoustic headache. The explosive boom-boom heard miles below has kept supersonic aircraft banned from flying over populated areas for more than 50 years.

“The sonic boom happens because an aircraft flying faster than sound generates shock waves from all its components — the nose, canopy, wings, engines,” Coen explained. “Those waves stack up as they travel to the ground, and what people hear is that sharp double bang.”

The X-59, however, is engineered to rewrite the physics of that sound. With its sleek 100-foot fuselage, elongated nose, and engine mounted above the fuselage to shield the ground from noise, the aircraft manipulates shockwaves before they ever reach the surface.

“By spacing the shockwaves evenly and keeping them similar in strength,” Coen said, “they don’t pile up. The result is a gentle pressure rise and fall — a thump instead of a boom.”

The Quesst Mission: Listening to the Future

But the X-59 isn’t just about technology — it’s about human response. Through NASA’s Quesst (Quiet SuperSonic Technology) mission, Coen and his team will fly the aircraft over U.S. communities to learn how people perceive the sound.

“We’ll invite residents to participate in surveys while we fly the X-59 overhead,” he explained. “We’ll vary the flight patterns and loudness from day to day and correlate the community’s reactions with precise acoustic data.”

That information will be delivered to the FAA and International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), helping them craft new regulations — replacing the current blanket ban on supersonic flight with a data-driven noise threshold.

“In other words,” Coen said, “instead of saying, ‘You can’t fly faster than Mach 1,’ the rule could say, ‘You can fly faster than sound as long as you’re quieter than a certain number of decibels.’”

Initial flight testing will take place at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base, home to a legacy of aviation firsts. Once the team validates the X-59’s acoustic performance, they’ll expand testing to communities across the U.S., representing different geographies, climates, and demographics.

A Career Built on Collaboration

Coen’s journey to leading one of NASA’s most ambitious aeronautics projects began humbly — in conceptual aircraft design. Early in his career, he specialized in technology integration, studying how new materials, propulsion systems, and aerodynamic ideas could be combined into cohesive aircraft.

“I didn’t design airplanes,” he said. “I designed ways to understand airplanes.”

Those studies evolved into multidisciplinary design optimization, where teams from different specialties — aerodynamics, structures, propulsion, acoustics — collaborated to model complex interactions. “It was uncomfortable at first,” Coen admitted. “But it taught me how to get people with very different priorities to work together. That skill became invaluable.”

Later, his expertise in sonic boom research led him to programs with DARPA and NASA’s High-Speed Research Program, where he honed both technical and leadership skills. “Over time, I became known not just as someone who understood sonic booms,” he said, “but someone who could bring people together to solve them.”

Now, as Mission Integration Manager for Quesst, he’s doing exactly that — orchestrating collaboration across NASA centers, international agencies, and industry partners to make quiet supersonic flight a reality.

Advice for Future Aerospace Leaders

For the next generation of engineers, Coen’s advice is simple but powerful: embrace teamwork and discomfort.

“When I was in school, most of us worked alone,” he said. “Now, universities emphasize teamwork — and that’s absolutely essential. No one designs a supersonic aircraft by themselves.”

He also encourages students to seek diverse experiences early in their careers. “Don’t worry about specializing right away,” he said. “Expose yourself to as many disciplines as possible — aerodynamics, structures, systems, even policy.”

And most importantly, take risks. “If you’re offered an opportunity that feels uncomfortable, take it,” he said. “You’ll find people will support you as you grow into it. Those moments are what make you valuable — not just as an engineer, but as a contributor to something bigger.”

The Sound of What’s Next

For Coen, the X-59 represents more than just a technical milestone — it’s a promise that the next era of aviation will be faster, quieter, and more connected than ever before.

“We’re doing this for the next generation,” he told me. “If we can show that quiet supersonic flight is possible, we open the door to an entirely new way of traveling — one that shrinks the world without disturbing it.”