Why can't we hear the sound barrier breaking anymore?

Question

My mom claims that when she was young, the sound barrier was broken about once or twice a year. Now, there is not one. This seems like a good question to ask, so please, can somebody tell me why?!?

Answer 1

Because all the SuperSabre jets that used to fly over my house at supersonic speed (Ka- f*$%*%*ing- BOOM) here in Boston back when I was a kid rattling houses and broke all sorts of windows and plates and cups and all the household glass ware (including toilet bowls) which caused cities to sue the government for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage.

So the FAA just rerouted all the military and commercial jets over the least populated areas.

Answer 2

It is now illegal to break the sound barrier over land in the USA. Now that the Concorde is no longer flying, the only aircraft that can do it are military planes. They are only allowed to do it very high up where the shock wave does not reach the ground. This was due to complaints from people on the ground, years ago. Pilots that want to keep flying for the USAF obey this rule.

Once in a rare while the military may break this rule, but not very often.

One of the things that made the Concorde a commercial failure (besides huge fuel consumption for very few passengers) was that it could only fly supersonicover water. So when it flew to Houston, it could fly mach 1400mph over the Atlantic, then had to fly subsonic, less than 700mph over the USA.Shaving 3 hours off a 6-hour flight (London-NYC) was great, shaving 3 hours off a 10-hour flight was not as spectacular.

Answer 3

Breaking the sound barrier is routine for aircraft these days, and has even been broken by a land vechicle. The supersonic passenger airliner known as the Concorde made regular flights from 1976 to 2003. Its just not as impressive as it was decades ago.

Answer 4

The sound barrier is broken now on a daily basis by supersonic aircraft. It is simply common place and not newsworthy.

Any time an aircraft exceeds the speed of sound there is a sonic boom. You don't hear them because they generally don't do so over populated areas.

Answer 5

Breaking the sound barrier causes a sonic boom. They still happen all the time, usually at altitudes that make them hard to detect. Go sit at an airport for a while, you'll eventually hear one if you don't go deaf first

Answer 6

It is common for military aircraft to break the sound barrier. They're just restricted from doing so over populated areas.

Answer 7

Supersonic aircraft are more restricted than they used to be. But if you live near an air force base, you'll probably hear sonic booms fairly often.

Answer 8

Just a guess......because our ears aren't smart now? Haha...I like to give people annoying answers when I don't know the real answer. Sorry if I annoyed you!

Answer 9

There is no more sound barriers.

Answer 10

ultrasonic planes have already broken it since long, so it is not any thing new.