Do pilots need permission to go supersonic?

A sonic boom is a loud noise that people on the ground can hear when an aircraft, for example, breaks the sound barrier by traveling faster than the speed of sound. Supersonic flight is banned over land in the US without special government authorization because of the inconvenient noises and tremors it can produce.



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Fifty years ago, the federal government banned all civilian supersonic flights over land. The rule prohibits non-military aircraft from flying faster than sound so their resulting sonic booms won't startle the public below or concern them about potential property damage.

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If you're WONDERing about how pilots handle sonic booms, they actually don't hear them. They can see the pressure waves around the plane, but people on board the airplane can't hear the sonic boom. Like the wake of a ship, the boom carpet unrolls behind the airplane.

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Not technically illegal, but it's a violation for civil air crafts to break the sound barrier and cause any damage or disturbance.

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Fifty years ago, the federal government banned all civilian supersonic flights over land. The rule prohibits non-military aircraft from flying faster than sound so their resulting sonic booms won't startle the public below or concern them about potential property damage.

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Speed is often measured in kilometers per hour, but also in Mach, which corresponds to the speed of sound. For reference, Mach 1 is approximately 1,230 km/h. The Blackbird, an American military aircraft, holds the title of the fastest aircraft in the world with a top speed of Mach 3.32, or 3,540 km/h.

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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) sets regulations relating to United States airspace. Current rules prohibit commercial airplanes from flying at supersonic speeds over land because of the noise levels associated with sonic booms and the negative impacts to humans and animals.

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Of course. Two people sitting in your run-of-the-mill supersonic airplane such as the Concorde can easily carry out conversations, without much trouble.

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Spike Aerospace, founded in 2013 Max Kachoria of NASA, built an 18-passenger supersonic jet with low-sonic boom, fuel efficiency, speeds up to 1,100 mph, and flight times slashed in half. Their current model is the S-512 which can get passengers to cities in a moment's notice: NYC to London: 3 hours.

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Supersonic speed is the speed of an object that is faster than the speed of sound, measured at about 768 miles per hour at sea level. Supersonic speed is one of the four “regimes of flight” (subsonic, transonic, supersonic, hypersonic).

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The F/A-18 can reach speeds just under Mach 2, almost twice the speed of sound or about 1,400 mph.

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