When a plane is flying faster than the speed of sound, can the pilot hear the engines?

Question

Is it completely silent? Is it noisy from the plane vibrating?
Does the pilot hear sonic booms? If yes, are they deafening?

Please have some physics background when attempting an answer.

Answer 1

The pilot DOES NOT hear the engine noise carried through the air because he is flying faster than it is transmitted through the air.

However, the sound of the engines is also conducted through the structure of the aircraft and the air that is inside the aircraft is moving along with the pilot. So, because the medium of transmission is also moving, the sound along the alternative medium does get to the pilot.

If two planes were flying along beside each other in excess of the speed of sound, would the pilots hear the sound of the engines from the other planes? No.

Because the sound has to be carried through the air (the medium of transmission) the relative velocity of the sound generator to the sound receiver mean very little. There is Doppler shift in one direction because the sound generator is moving in the medium of transmission and another Doppler shift the other direction because the receiver is moving away. However, this has nothing to do with whether the sound can catch the receiver.

Answer 2

The pilot can hear the engines.

The aircraft a sealed container full of air that is also moving at the speed of sound. There is no relative velocity between the engine, the interior air and the pilot. So, a sound wave propagating through that air has a velocity equal to the sum of the speed of sound plus the speed of the air its traveling through (speed of the plane). Since the pilot is moving only at the speed of the plane, the sound wave is moving faster and will overtake his ear.

If the pilot were outside, sitting on the nose of the airplane instead, he would not hear the engines since the air outside the plane is moving at zero velocity; the sound wave is traveling only at the speed of sound (no velocity contribution due to moving air) while the plane and pilot are moving faster than the speed of sound.

Answer 3

The pilot can't hear the sonic boom; it's a compressed air column outside the plane, ahead of the plane. But the plane carries its cabin air along with it, so all the sounds generated inside the plane, like engine noise and bulkheads creaking, sound the same as they would at subsonic speeds.

Answer 4

Of course the pilot can hear the engines because the point of origin of the sound is traveling as fast as the pilot. ie, the relative velocity between the engines and the pilot is .... zero, therefore the pilot hears everything

Answer 5

Of course the pilot can hear the engines because the point of origin of the sound is traveling as fast as the pilot. ie, the relative velocity between the engines and the pilot is .... zero, therefore the pilot hears everything.

Answer 6

The plane and the pilot are moving at the same speed and thus in relationship to one another, they are not moving. The pilot does hear the engines, can talk to himself, hear his radio, etc.

Rebecca
http://www.ipowergrfx.com

Answer 7

Responder tbolling2 is correct. The pilot can hear engine noise conducted through the airframe, but not through the external air.

Answer 8

They do not hear sonic booms. They hear plane noise and vibration.

Answer 9

yes, but the pilot must hear very quickly

Answer 10

Makin some sense now.....right