Teams on the ground snapped the shock waves around Boom Supersonic’s demonstrator aircraft as it pushed through the air.
A newly released image shows the sound barrier being broken on February 10 as America’s first civil supersonic jet completed its second flight at speeds exceeding Mach 1. “This image makes the invisible visible,” said Blake Scholl, founder and CEO of Boom Supersonic.
In order to capture the image - using special filters that detect air distortions - Boom chief test pilot Tristan “Geppetto” Brandenburg positioned XB-1 at an exact time in a precise location over the Mojave Desert. As the aircraft flew in front of the sun, NASA’s team documented the changing air speeds as speeds over Mach 1, the speed of sound (761.23 miles per hour / 1,225.1 km per hour).
NASA teams also collected data on the volume of sound made by XB-1 on the flight route and Boom says the analysis found that no audible sonic boom reached the ground during the flight. This is very important to Boom as minimizing sonic boom has been a key goal for engineers involved in the race to bring about the return of commercial supersonic air travel.
The thunderous sounds created by sonic booms have meant that international governments have banned them from occurring over densely populated areas or restricted them to only being allowed over the sea.
On January 28 this year, Boom Supersonic's XB-1 demonstrator made its first supersonic flight. The aircraft is the precursor to the development of Boom’s supersonic commercial airliner, Overture.