Message posted by Peter Merlin on April 10, 2011 at 11:45:50 PST:

When an airplane or other object ravels through air faster than the speed of sound, it creates shock waves that produce sonic booms. Such shock waves are produced at the site of any discontinuity in the craft, such as a wing, but the loudest ones are produced at the nose and the tail.

All supersonic planes produce two sonic booms, but a jet fighter, for example, is so short and usually flying so close to the ground that the two are usually superimposed so that we only hear one. On a longer aircraft, such as the space shuttle, there is a slight time-separation between the two booms. Furthermore, the two shock waves diverge slightly. When an aircraft is flying at very high altitudes, this increases the separation between the booms. The F-22A is said to be capable of altitudes in excess of 60,000 feet.

In Reply to: Double Boom at Primm area posted by Moonlighter on April 08, 2011 at 19:22:20 PST:

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