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More On Silent Supersonic Planes
Reverberant writes "Popular Science describes the latest attempt at developing a supersonic plane designed to minimize sonic booms. The article describes some of the history behind the research, and recent attempts at validating the theory. Also note that researcher Ken Plotkin is a frequent contributer to alt.sci.physics.acoustics."
Where is that Hedgehog when you need him? Can't we tell him just to be quiet?
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is it just me being paranoid, or is not having any windows and having cameras send external images to the cockpit a "bad thing." obviously, without computer systems, the planes are almost useless, but if anything happens to the camera, the pilot can't even *see* outside the plane.
BSD is for people who love UNIX. Linux is for those who hate Microsoft.
Pilots rely on more than just being able to see outside. They have literally dozens of instruments that they have to monitor in addition to the view outside. During the night and over the ocean, you have nothing but your insturments to rely on, so it's not like this is a new thing for pilots. Still, if it were ME I would want a window :)
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That's very interesting, but would not it make more sense to make the normal, subsonic planes more silent? They are much more in use, and the noise causes a lot of grief near airports, especially at night. Here in Brussels, this problem is already for years on the political agenda, being a very difficult problem to solve (economics vs. health...), so silent planes are really a must!
I've never heard a sonic boom... so I'm not really sure how loud they are, but a co-worker described it as "pretty much sounds like thunder".
EVERYONE has heard a sonic boom at one point: the crack of a whip. That sound you hear is not the tip of the whip hitting anything. It's the sound of the tip accelerating beyond the speed of sound and creating a mini-sonic boom. That little flick at the end causes the tip to snap out at incredible speed.
Now as far as a big sonic boom, I haven't heard one either. I'm sure there are some pretty strict regulations about not creating sonic booms in civilian areas.
GMD
watch this
A sonic boom can also be detected at many miles distance by a wired or radio connected listening device, analyzed in a few seconds to get a fairly good idea of what sort of plane emitted it, and that information sent to the potential target, or interceptor forces, at the speed of light or close to it, long before the plane can cross the terrain to get to its target. The Soviet Union was deploying such systems in the early 1960s, and it's a fair bet that even some "third world" countries have their own variants on them today.
Who is John Cabal?