Experimental aviation

During a test with an F/A-18 research aircraft this image of Earth's curvature was taken from the cockpit while performing a series of quiet supersonic dives over the coast of Galveston, Texas. The pilot climbed 15,000 metres (50,000 feet) before performing the dive. Scientists want to carefully study the shockwaves created to improve future models of the X-59 QueSST aircraft.