Why is it that a subsonic aircraft, no matter how loud it may be, cannot produce a sonic boom?

Answer 1

it's not how loud the engine is, it's how fast the plane goes!
Above speeds of Mach .7 the air flowing over the wing accelerates above the speed of sound, causing a shock wave (also known as a sonic boom) as the airplane compresses air molecules faster than they can move away from the airplane. The danger of this shock wave is its effect on control surfaces and fragile wing members, and for many years it was thought to represent a near-solid barrier to faster flight. The problems associated with this shock wave were ultimately conquered through the use of swept-back wings and the moving of critical control surfaces out of the wave's direct path. Chuck Yeager, in 1947, was the first to fly at sustained supersonic speed. Other troublesome phenomena associated with supersonic flight are the shock waves that build up at engine air intakes, and the much larger wave that trails after the craft.

Answer 2

A sonic boom is the sound made when an aircraft breaks the sound barrier. It has nothing to do with how loud the aircraft's engines are. Subsonic, by it's very definition, is when something is incapable of breaking the sound barrier. Hence, no sonic boom can be produced.

Answer 3

The boom you hear when certain aricraft go supersonic has nothing to do with engine noise. The boom is the result of the wingtips or aircraft body itself, depending upon the vehicle, creating shock waves as it moves through the air. At a certain speed of the aircraft, and based upon ambient temperature and pressure, the air cannot get out of the way to flow smoothly over the airfoil. The airfoil slams it out of the way and when the air masses rush back together they go boom. The shuttle is cool in that it's shape causes shock waves to form in two places creating the really neat double boom. Which is always fun to hear when the shuttle comes in for a landing at KSC at like 3am. Wakes everyone here in central Florida in the flight path right up.

For any pilots and engineers out there do NOT yell at my over-simplified answer. I know there is a lot more tehcnical stuff to it, but I don't feel the asker wants a book for an answer.

Answer 4

To create a sonic boom, you have to go faster than the speed of sound. It has nothing to do with how loud it is. The sound piles up as the plane goes past an observer so they hear the sonic boom. It's part of the Doppler effect. It's like when you're standing by the road and a car goes by blowing it's horn. The pitch of the horn will change as it moves from behind you to in front of you because of the way it's moving in relation to the sound waves and their wavelengths.

Answer 5

Because a supersonic plane pushes the air in front of it until it breaks and causes the boom, with subsonic the air simply washes around it. It's like breaking a skin that doesn't form around a subsonic.

Answer 6

Uhh. That's the definition of subsonic. A craft slower than sonic speed. You have to be supersonic to create a sonic boom.

Answer 7

A sonic boost is the sound made at the same time as an plane breaks the sound barrier. It has no longer something to do with how loud the plane's engines are. Subsonic, through it really is totally definition, is at the same time as something is incapable of breaking the sound barrier. therefore, no sonic boost will be produced.

Answer 8

because the aircraft is called subsonic. (subsonic=speed under the speed of sound) the sonic boom only happens when u pass the speed of sound.

Answer 9

the sonic boom happens when the aircraft goes at the speed of sound in the air. so it catches up with its own noise, and all the wave fronts coincide, resulting in huge energy.

this has nothing to do with the noise of the engines.

if you had a noiseless flyer saucer and accelerated it in the atmosphere, when it reached the speed of sound it would still make a sonic boom.

Answer 10

Because it's subsonic, Big Fella. The 'boom' is the product of the crafts speed,not it's decibel level.