Too Fast

This is my first post.
Right after school me and some of my friends decided to walk around a bit. We ended up stopping while we were on the school's football field. All of the sudden I hear an intense sonic boom (I hear them all the time but this one was very unique.) heading West from the East. My friends and I were confused because there was no plane leading in front of the boom. Is it possible for a plane right now to clear a huge stretch of clear sky in nearly a second? I live West of Holloman AFB in New Mexico and I've heard that they have many B2's there and some stealth fighters on occasion. If somebody could give me some information on some of the possible planes that could have done something like that it would be great.
Thanks,
Marius

did u happen to look up at the sky? there might be a small small very small plane .....which is travelling at a moderate speed... which i believe is B-52 bomber.. it is way up high in the sky......appear very very small..... might be i dun noe.

That is very true about the small plane. Me and my friends tried really hard to see something but there is a possibility that it was a mere speck.
Thanks,
Marius

any time you are dealing with a jet propelled airplane you need to be looking way forward of where the sound seems to be coming from in the sky.

Originally posted by Sugarlump
any time you are dealing with a jet propelled airplane you need to be looking way forward of where the sound seems to be coming from in the sky.

Yes I am very clear of this. I live by the AFB so I usually see planes that break the sound barrier all of the time. And of course I looked way ahead of the "boom" but I still did not see any kind of plane or anything.
Thanks,
Marius

Originally posted by hrtw
did u happen to look up at the sky? there might be a small small very small plane .....which is travelling at a moderate speed... which i believe is B-52 bomber.. it is way up high in the sky......appear very very small..... might be i dun noe.

The B-52 and the B-2 cannot go supersonic.(no boom), its probably just a normal jet aircraft like the F-15 or F-22, and it could of being going over mach 2, which would make it pretty hard to spot. Whats the name of the AFB?

I looked up the Holloman website and it says it operates 3 types of aircraft the F-117 the T-38 Talon (Trainer) and the Tornado. The T-38 can go Mach 1.08 and the Tornado Mach 2.2. Maybe it was one of these two Aircraft because the F-117 is not supersonic or maybe it was a fighter from another base.

Holloman AFB

Originally posted by WestPoint23
I looked up the Holloman website and it says it operates 3 types of aircraft the F-117 the T-38 Talon (Trainer) and the Tornado. The T-38 can go Mach 1.08 and the Tornado Mach 2.2. Maybe it was one of these two Aircraft because the F-117 is not supersonic or maybe it was a fighter from another base.

Holloman AFB

My money is on the T-38 very fast and VERY small little trainer! Any one got any info on the Tornado the westy is talking about?

RAB

RAB,

It is the Panavia Tornado, also originally known as the MRCA.

Cheers

BHR

there are many aircraft flying on WSMR. the german air force flies the tornado and F-4. the national guard at KAFB in ABQ flies the F-16. then you have the F-117 and T-38 out of HAFB. Plus there are whatever visiting aircraft to WSMR in the mix.

where i work, the F-4's are the ones breaking the sound barrier, i see them dogfighting all the time, poppig out flares. there are certain areas on the range where breaking the speed of sound is 'legal', but the germans in the F-4's don't seem to care.

what is scary is a tornado at 500 feet doing 500 mph right on top of you!

Blythe,

At low level I believe the Tornado is the fastest aircraft in the world, although I could be wrong about that.

Cheers

BHR

Originally posted by Murcielago

Originally posted by hrtw
did u happen to look up at the sky? there might be a small small very small plane .....which is travelling at a moderate speed... which i believe is B-52 bomber.. it is way up high in the sky......appear very very small..... might be i dun noe.

The B-52 and the B-2 cannot go supersonic.(no boom), its probably just a normal jet aircraft like the F-15 or F-22, and it could of being going over mach 2, which would make it pretty hard to spot. Whats the name of the AFB?

If it was going Mach 2 he would have heard a double boom.

I've mentioned this in another thread- you're not allowed to break the sound barrier over built up areas. You have to be over a certain height (I believe FL50) or over the ocean. So it's doubtful it was a sonic boom.

Delta,

Do you get a double boom at Mach 2?

Can you explain why?

Do you get a triple boom at Mach 3?

What happens when the shuttle re-enters at Mach 25?

Cheers

BHR

Do I look like a scientist? I don't know why- all I'm repeating is what I've read.

Are you trying to be condascending?

Originally posted by BillHicksRules
Delta,

Do you get a double boom at Mach 2?

Can you explain why?

Do you get a triple boom at Mach 3?

What happens when the shuttle re-enters at Mach 25?

Cheers

BHR

The Shuttle does have a double boom on most reentries, because the tail sticks out of the pressure V that the nose creates, thus creating its own pressure V, both of which cause sonic booms. Multiple booms have nothing to do with mach numbers (but Im sure you knew that already ).

RP,

I have to admit to being a bit facetious with my last post.

You caught me.

Cheers

BHR

Wait a sec I don't think you get a new boom every time you hit a new Mach it's only for Mach 1. The Mach 1 boom happens because your plane is travelling at exactly the speed of sound at Mach 1 and the sound propagating forward from your plane is also travelling at Mach 1 so it sort of "piles up" and ends up in a huge boom. After Mach 1, your plane is already travelling faster than sound so the sound does not get piled up.

He did say it was a unique sounding boom though....

Maybe this is similar to what we had in Florida last weekend, and on the 11th of March. Like me, I'm sure he's used to hearing them, but this was different.

Rules be damned I suppose, because this (the FL ones) was over residential areas, and shook the damn house...

Originally posted by Taishyou
Wait a sec I don't think you get a new boom every time you hit a new Mach it's only for Mach 1. The Mach 1 boom happens because your plane is travelling at exactly the speed of sound at Mach 1 and the sound propagating forward from your plane is also travelling at Mach 1 so it sort of "piles up" and ends up in a huge boom. After Mach 1, your plane is already travelling faster than sound so the sound does not get piled up.

Sort of but no.

The sonic boom happens at any speed over Mach 1 (although for a plane travelling above 10,000 feet, you cant hear it below Mach 1.15), but only once per shockwave created, but its a continuous thing as the shockwave moves forward with the aircraft, so you may only hear it once but its still happening as its passed you.

As an object moves through the atmosphere, it creates a series of pressure waves ahead of it, as the air is compressed. At higher speeds, these pressure waves cant get out of the way fast enough, and are compressed into a conical shockwave which travels at roughly the speed of sound.

Shockwaves are not restricted to just the nose of the aircraft, they can form from any point on the aircraft, usually only apparent and audible as a sonic boom if the second point extends outside the nose wave. This happens at any speed above the speed of sound, so you would still get sonic booms at Mach 2, but only one for each shockwave created by the aircraft (most aircraft only produce a single shockwave, but some like the Shuttle or COncorde produce two).

See the following diagram for an idea of how the airflow looks at during flight.



Take this for an example, go fill a bath up with water, now stick your finger in it and move the finger forward. It creates a bow wave, right? Looks like a V extending behind the movement of your finger. Thats what happens with air at supersonic speeds. The V is continuous as the aircraft keeps on moving.

[edit on 6/4/2005 by RichardPrice]

So do any blades on engines ever create sonic booms as they rotate at high speed? If so what happens to that?