What is a Supersonic Flight?
Supersonic
flight
means flying faster than the speed of sound. Aircrafts do
not usually
fly faster than
sound. The
first supersonic
aircraft flew
in 1940s. The
speed of
sound is about
1200 km/hour
at the sea
level and
higher up in the air, it
slows down
to 950 km/hour.
When an
aircraft is flying at the speed of sound or faster, it arrives at any point in the
air
before its
own sound can get there. The sound that the aircraft has been making on its way, suddenly
arrives at once.
The bands
of pressure in the sound waves all travel together to
give a very strong wave of air pressure known as sonic boom which
may badly
shock the plane.
Supersonic aircrafts
are designed specially to overcome this shock by building planes,
such as concord
with
long, sharp nose and thin swept-back wings. It
can carry passengers at over twice the speed of sound.
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