AS TICKETS for Concorde’s final flight go on sale this week, an American aerospace company has demonstrated a way to modify a supersonic jet to dramatically reduce its sonic boom. The work could pave the way for a new generation of business jets quiet enough to fly at supersonic speed over populated areas.
Sonic booms are one of the biggest drawbacks of supersonic flight. They are the thunderclaps caused when shock waves created at the nose and tail of an aircraft meet as they travel to the ground. Where the shock waves overlap they reinforce each other, creating the boom.…
