Re:Australia Joins the Race for Supersonic Flight
by KuiN on Wednesday May 12, 2021 @02:44PM
(#27133700)
There's a lot of effort going into researching ways to make booms from SSTs quieter. NASA's has a low-boom research program trying to turn the booms into "gentle thumps" by changing the shape of plane's shockwaves [0]. Lockheed are building the X-59 for demonstration flights for the program.
I guess they could wait until they've very far away to actually go supersonic, though, and slow down while still really far from the landing strip, but if they're flying over populated regions at all supersonic, it's going to mini earthquake everyone underneath the flight path.