Avweb explains breaking the SB

[Dave Siciliano]

Nice vid showing planes breaking the sound barrier and explaining why we can sometimes see this visually.

Best,

Dave

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWGLAAYdbbc&fmt=18

 

[TangoWhiskey]

The END of that video, with the rocket launch from earlier this year, was especially COOL!

 

[gismo]

Nice vid showing planes breaking the sound barrier and explaining why we can sometimes see this visually.

Best,

Dave

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWGLAAYdbbc&fmt=18

And contrary to popular belief, a "sonic boom" doesn't just occur as an plane "breaks through" the "sound barrier", it trails the plane like a 3 dimensional version of the wake from a boat on plane as long as the plane is supersonic.

 

[Gerhardt]

It's funny, I remember hearing sonic booms all the time when I was a kid. I haven't heard one in years.

 

[Jack Spectre]

It's funny, I remember hearing sonic booms all the time when I was a kid. I haven't heard one in years.

I lived in the Yakima valley in the 80's and we always heard sonic booms from fighter jets. For years my brother told me it was jets slamming into the side of the mountain...

 

[EvilEagle]

We used to be allowed to be supersonic anywhere in the US as long as we were above FL300, but that's changed. Now it has to be in specific airspace and above a minimum altitude. (usually somewhere around 10-15k agl)

 

[Trapper John]

It's funny, I remember hearing sonic booms all the time when I was a kid. I haven't heard one in years.

I hear sonic booms every time there's a thunderstorm. :wink2:

 

[Mtns2Skies]

I hear sonic booms every time there's a thunderstorm. :wink2:

Thats not a sonic boom is it? Isnt it more of an explosion from the air heating up. Kind of like a bomb?

 

[chucky]

The END of that video, with the rocket launch from earlier this year, was especially COOL!

I thought so too - especially because that rocket was launching the Solar Dynamics Observatory, which I've done some work for the past four years.

 

[Dan Thomas]

Thats not a sonic boom is it? Isnt it more of an explosion from the air heating up. Kind of like a bomb?

"Sonic" just means "sound." So a thunderbolt could be said to make a "sonic" boom.

Dan

 

[gismo]

"Sonic" just means "sound." So a thunderbolt could be said to make a "sonic" boom.

Dan

"Sonic Boom" is short for "Supersonic Boom". By your reasoning, simply uttering the word "Boom" would be a sonic boom since it involves both sound and a "boom". Heck, even the pole used to hold the microphone when making a movie (commonly called a "sound boom") would be a "sonic boom".