Why don't we have sonic booms anymore?

Answer 1

It's because Guile is like an elderly man now. He can't Sonic Boom anything anymore.

Answer 2

I assume you are restricting this to aircraft? If you want to hear a sonic boom tomorrow just go along to a rifle range that has target marking pits (the targets are swung down to mark fall of shot) and offer to score targets, you'll hear a sonic boom every time there's a shot.

Anyway, I can tell you a time and a place to hear a sonic boom and to see the aircraft that caused it. Go to Orlando the next time the space shuttle is landing, it passes right over head and some incredible speed, but if it's a clear day you can hear and feel the boom. I swear I could feel the pressure rise at the leading edge and fall at the trailing edge, in any case there were two distinct bangs. BA-BOOM

The rest is mostly above. Part of the exclusion of Concorde from the US was the banning of supersonic flight over continents. So, since Concorde needed to be supersonic to cruise economically at 65,000 feet she was excluded from anything but routes over the sea.

Concorde used reheat to reach supersonic speeds, but after than she throttled back a long way and continued to accelerate and climb up to M2.0 at FL650 on dry power. At high speeds Concorde got much of its power from clever inlet design. This is not a turbofan/turbojet thing either, the F22 uses turbofans and can accelerate through mach 1 and cruise supersonic without the use of afterburner. TSR2, which was cancelled in favor of the F-111 which Britain never bought, was also designed for supersonic cruise using two Olympus engines (Concorde used 4).

Right now there's a lot of work going on to create a quiet supersonic aircraft, all that energy that goes into a sonic boom is just wasted fuel, so they are trying to engineer out the sonic boom by reducing the shockwave the aircraft generates. But if they are succesful you still won't be hearing any sonic booms, even if they are allowed to fly over land the aircraft will be too quiet and too high to hear. Take a look at the article below

But then there's these persistant reports of sonic booms over southern California. The government always denies all knowledge, but there's a lot os speculation that the DoD has something fast flying in to the secret bases in Nevada.

Answer 3

I don't have an answer but just wanted to say that when I was a little girl - back in the 60's - I lived in the country in California and we used to frequently hear sonic booms. However, not since that time have I heard one. So, I know what you mean.

Answer 4

Civilian and commercial aircrafts do not fly at or above the speed of sound. I've heard some sonic booms during 9/11 when fighter jets flew by.

Answer 5

Aircraft now days have Turbofan engines and we don't fly fast enough to make a sonic boom. They are and can still happen. Military jets go way past sonic speeds. Military planes have turbojets, which was the first type of a jet engine. Turbojets engines were LOUD and very smoky. They put those in fighter jets. But commercial aircraft don't fly fast enough. Miltary planes make sonic booms all the time.

Answer 6

It boils down to this , GREENIES, YES LETS SAY IT, Determined that their should be no "sonic Booms" over populated areas, going back to the early '70's. That is why there are no Boeing supersonic jets, etc. POLITICS, that is the Greenpeace movement of the 70's have given you the sub-sonic AC of today.

Answer 7

Sonic booms ended when strict noise level standards were enacted over populated areas. You can still hear them in remote areas of the west and south west where a lot of military flight tests are done.

Answer 8

We do have sonic booms, but people get mad when you do them over their houses so the government has pretty much put a law stating that it must be out over the water or noncongested areas.

Answer 9

The REAL reson why you will very rarely hear "sonic booms" is because supersonic travel is not permitted over land. Except in emergency situations, you can only break the sound barrier in designated supersonic corridors oversea.

An object that breaks the sound barrier will produce Mach (shock)waves that, if done over land - can cause structural damage to buildings, shatter windows and glass, and generally annoy people on the ground!

Answer 10

For the most part, only military aircraft can surpass the speed of sound, and they are not allowed to do it around populated areas.

It also uses a lot of extra fuel, so afterburner time is limited. Yes, they can refuel in flight, but those are usually coordinated before the airplanes take to the sky.