14, 1947, when Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier while piloting the rocket-powered Bell X-1 over the Mojave Desert. “The main objective is to open up new markets.” “The main reason NASA is working on this is to enable regulation for supersonic flight,” said Craig Nickol, NASA’s low-boom flight demonstration project manager. to lift the ban, which could allow for two-hour coast-to-coast supersonic flights. NASA and aviation entrepreneurs, however, are working to change that, with new aircraft designed to turn the boom into a “sonic thump” that is no louder than a car door that is being slammed 20 feet away. But potentially lucrative overland routes were off limits, restricting supersonic travel’s business prospects. Planes could go supersonic only over the ocean - most famously, the Concorde, the sleek British-French passenger plane that flew a handful of routes in less than half the average time. In 1960s-era tests, booms reportedly broke windows, cracked plaster and knocked knickknacks from shelves in 1973, the Federal Aviation Administration forbade civilian supersonic aircraft from flying over land. That is largely because of physics: specifically, the sonic boom, the thunderclap noise made when an aircraft breaks the sound barrier (and continues as the aircraft flies beyond the barrier), which essentially doomed supersonic aviation as a viable business. This article is part of our series on the Future of Transportation, which is exploring innovations and challenges that affect how we move about the world.ĭespite the promise of two-hour flights from New York to Los Angeles, the supersonic airline industry never really got off the ground.

Sonic generations super sonic