…And birds go flying at the Speed of Sound…
A US Navy F/A-18 flying faster than the speed of sound
Ever seen a fighter jet overhead that appears to be flying silently, then suddenly it makes a huge crack like lightning? That jet was flying faster than the speed of sound. But what actually is the speed of sound? The speed of sound is approximately 1,235 kilometers per hour, or 767 mph. To put this in perspective you drive you car around 100 km/h (60 mp/h) and a Jumbo Jet flies at around 900 km/h (560 mph). The speed of sound is known as Mach 1 and twice the speed of sound is known as Mach 2, or around 2470 km/h (1534 mph). When you fly faster than the speed of sound you are “breaking the sound barrier” as it makes a loud cracking noise.
The worlds fastest manned aircraft is the North American X-15 which has been said to have traveled at speeds of Mach 6.85. Mach 6.85 is the equivalent of 7,274 kilometers per hour (4,520 mph). But there is a plane even faster than this one. It’s the unmanned NASA X-43, which has set the speed record at Mach 9.8 or 12,144 km/h (7,546 mph). That plane flew at 121 times the speed of your car on a highway
The X-43 being dropped from a B-52A carrier for supersonic testing
The large boom that you hear, the Sonic Boom, that comes from supersonic planes is caused by all the sound coming from the plane being forced together behind the plane. The forced sound expands after the plane has passed in a cone shape from the rear of the plane, and when the cone passes over you you hear the boom of the expanding sound waves. This is why a supersonic jet is silent for a while, because the “cone of sound” hasn’t reached you yet.
Next time you see a plane flying silent, count the amount of seconds between the plane passing over you and the boom caused afterward. The longer the time, the faster the plane is flying.
In: Science · Tagged with: plane, speed of sound
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