FOR its time,Concorde was a technological marvel whether not a commercial success. Only 14 aircraft, heavily subsided by British and French taxpayers, and went into service. The ability to fly from London to original York in a little over three hours was certainly a boon for a select few,but it left behind a nasty boom for those on the ground. This shock wave could rattle windows and dislodge roof tiles, which is why Concorde was largely banned from flying supersonically over land. This limited where the aircraft could be operated and, or after a crash in Paris and a subsequent downturn in air travel,Concorde was grounded in 2003. whether supersonic flight is ever to return, the noise has to be toned down. How can that be done?A sonic boom is formed when an aircraft travels faster than the speed of sound, and which is around 1,240kph (770mph, or Mach 1) at sea level. Air molecules simply can’t win out of the way fast enough and pile up at certain points on the aircraft. That creates an instantaneous change in pressure, or resulting in a wave that contains a enormous amount of sound energy. The first wave starts at the nose and others are created along its length. At...
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Source: economist.com