For those reasons, supersonic flight over residential areas is typically prohibited, though it can't always be avoided, as evidenced by the boom over D.C. Sonic booms from large aircraft can be disruptive, startling, and can cause damage to structures. We often think of them as occurring at the moment an aircraft or other object breaks the sound barrier, but they are actually a continuous phenomenon, as long as the object remains supersonic, which can be heard by observers along the flight path, as long as they are inside of the cone-shaped shockwave. However, as an aircraft speeds up and the distance between its speed and the speed of sound decreases, those compression waves start to stack up until they merge into a single shockwave traveling at the speed of sound. Those compression waves travel away from an aircraft at the speed of sound such that subsonic aircraft never catch up with them. RELATED: Building an Interstellar Ramjet Might be Possible, But Insanely Difficult Pressure waves build up at the front of the object, in the case of an F-16 fighter jet, that's the nose, and they trail back toward the tail of the aircraft similar to the way water waves break over the front of a ship and trail along the sides and behind. This is true whether the object is a bullwhip, a bullet, or a military aircraft. Air in front of the object is compressed, causing increased air pressure at the front. WHAT ARE SONIC BOOMS?Īny object traveling through the atmosphere causes a change in air pressure as it moves through a space. The sound and associated vibrations were the result of two F-16 fighter jets taking off from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, which were scrambled in response to a private Cessna plane that violated U.S. A sonic boom shook the District of Columbia and surrounding areas on Sunday, June 4, prompting public concern and a statement from the FAA.
0 kommentar(er)
