Kerry Lynch stepped into the role of editor of the&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;monthly magazine in May 2022 after serving with&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;for eight years. She joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in December 2014 as a senior editor covering Washington and business aviation news. She has also served on Convention News teams, including as editor of&nbsp;HAI Convention News. Lynch previously spent 25 years with Aviation Week. During her time there, she reported for and later steered&nbsp;The Weekly of Business Aviation, oversaw business aviation content on the&nbsp;Aviation Week Intelligence Network, served on the&nbsp;Show News&nbsp;staff, and held roles as the Washington columnist for&nbsp;Business &amp; Commercial Aviation&nbsp;and&nbsp;Overhaul &amp; Maintenance&nbsp;monthly magazines. In 2021 she was honored with the National Business Aviation Association Platinum Wing Award for lifetime achievement in journalism and was the 2004 recipient of the National Air Transportation Association’s Aviation Journalism Excellence Award. She also has been a recipient of an Aerospace Media Award for business aviation (2022) and NBAA Gold Wing Award (2003, 2024). Lynch graduated from The Ohio State University with a bachelor of arts in journalism.

Editor, AIN monthly magazine

Kerry Lynch

NASA’s X-59 experimental aircraft reached supersonic speeds for the first time on Friday, the agency announced. Piloted by NASA test pilot Jim “Clue” Less, the aircraft departed at 11:08 a.m. PDT from Edwards Air Force Base in California, for an 81-minute flight that reached about Mach 1.1 and an altitude of 43,400 feet.&nbsp;
During the June 5 flight, the X-59 team focused on flying qualities of the aircraft during subsonic and supersonic speeds. Plans call to stretch performance to Mach 1.4 and 55,000 feet in the coming days.
”X-59 is getting ready for its quiet supersonic debut. Since the aircraft’s first flight on Oct. 28, 2025, the team has made tremendous progress, flying 16 times in the last 90 days and getting into a steady test rhythm,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “I’m grateful to the NASA team and Lockheed Martin Skunk Works for their help getting us to this point, and I hope this is the first of many collaborations as we rebuild NASA’s X-plane portfolio.”
The flight is part of a series of envelope expansion trials ongoing for the demonstration plane, which was developed in concert with Lockheed Martin and will ultimately be used as part of the Quesst program that will explore the public impact of noise from the latest supersonic technologies. Data accumulated from that program will be used to evaluate whether the supersonic flight over land will be feasible in the future.
According to NASA, the X-59 is designed to fly beyond Mach 1 while creating a “quiet thump” instead of a loud sonic boom. However, the June 5 flight also involved a NASA F-15 chase aircraft, which emitted sonic booms and obscured any sound of the X-59.

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NASA’s X-59 Demonstrator Goes Supersonic

X-plane reached Mach 1.1 during 81-minute flight

NASA’s X-59 Quesst demonstrator reached Mach 1.1, marking its first supersonic flight, on June 5.

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News about commercial airlines, including regulations, aircraft orders, safety, acquisitions, and mergers.

News about bills, laws, regulations and other governmental decisions affecting aviation and aerospace. Topics include FAA re-authorizations, taxes on fuel and aviation activities, environmental legislation, ICAO decisions, governmental mediation of labor conflicts and World Trade Organization disputes and decisions.

News and issues relating to the aerospace industry that are related to the science, engineering and business of flight in space involving civil, industrial and military applications, and similar topics related to flight in the atmosphere of the Earth that are not covered more directly by other AINonline subject channels. In other words, both astronautical and aeronautical subjects, except for those aeronautical topics that are specifically covered elsewhere on this website.

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